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My partner and I completed the 3-day 3-night liveaboard on the Sea Esta in October and we were less than happy with the experience for the price we paid.
The Sea Esta is best described as an outdated, dangerous, spew-fest. The cabins were crampted, uncomfortable and the bedding appears to have not been changed since the 1970s (my pillow was completely flat and a deep brown in colour with sweat marks and I was suitably disgusted). This vessel is well behind all modern liveaboards in terms of comfort, facilities and safety and should have been decomissioned many years ago. Some double cabins are located below the rear deck directly next to the engines and are badly affected by defening engine sound and diesel fumes. Every morning you are awoken by the defening sound of the anchor regardless of which cabin you are located in. Stairways are narrow, steep and dangerous especially in heavy weather. Our trip was affected by extremely rough weather and in my opinion, it should have been cancelled but I suspect the fully booked trip was enough to convince these operators to push on. People were vomitting throughout the night every night as the boat would be moved between sites in the small hours of the morning and no instructions were provided by crew as to what to do if we got sea sick. The Sea Esta is an extremely slow ship with the trip out to the reef taking about 8 hours of brutal slogging overnight and the trip back from the Yongala on day 3 taking around 6 hours.
The crew were friendly and generally one of the very few highlights of the trip however the food was of a low quality even for the price point of a relatively affordable libeaboard. The diving was average in terms of coral reef sites, there were large areas of damaged and bleached corals and a distict lack of fish life. In simple terms, the reefs visited by this trip are poorer than those found closer to the coast off Cairns. The Yongala is an incredibly unique and historic dive site however it is worth remembering that it is located in open water and is badly affected by swell, wind and currents.
If you are still considering this trip I would strongly recommend you reconsider and book on with Pro Dive or Divers Den in Cairns where you can complete more dives on a 2-night liveaboard with far more modern vessels. And if you wish to dive the Yongala I would recommend diving with a Yongala Dive daytrip out of Ayr. - via 