Soft Spot is a Flinders Reefs site that marinelife.org.au describes as pinnacles with hundreds of colourful soft coral trees. The name is a play on words: this is the spot for soft corals, and a soft spot for those who love them.

Soft coral trees (Dendronephthya and related genera) grow best where current carries plankton past them, inflating their translucent stems and branches to feed. On pinnacles in open water, the up-current faces can be covered in them, in reds, pinks, oranges, purples and whites. Hundreds of trees on one set of pinnacles, as marinelife.org.au describes, make for spectacular wide-angle photography, particularly when the current is running and the corals are fully extended.

The pinnacles also attract fish. Anthias swarm around the soft corals, and schooling fusiliers, trevally and snapper circle the structures. Reef sharks patrol, and Cruising the Edge notes tiger sharks, tawny nurse sharks and tuna in the Flinders area. Look among the soft coral branches for commensal crabs, shrimps and cowries.

Cruising the Edge describes Mid Reef, where bommies rise 45 m from the lagoon floor with a multicoloured gully of feather stars, fans, whips and soft corals in a strong westward current; that may be the same area or a similar one nearby.

Soft Spot suits intermediate divers. The soft corals look best in current, so expect some water movement and stay close to the pinnacles.

Liveaboard only, from Townsville. Mike Ball's Spoilsport visits Flinders on its 7-night Yongala & Coral Sea expedition (depart Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Thursday evening, finish in Cairns) and the 10-night Coral Sea Odyssey; the overnight crossing is about 140 nautical miles (260 km), passing Myrmidon Reef on the outer Great Barrier Reef. Private expedition yachts anchor behind the main sand cay in about 30 m over sand.

Soft Spot is dived from a mooring or anchorage near the pinnacles when the crew chooses it.

The Flinders Reefs lie about 250 km off the Queensland coast, roughly 140 nautical miles north-east of Townsville, beyond the outer Great Barrier Reef. The crossing is made overnight through open ocean and is uncomfortable in SE trades over about 20 knots (common June–August). The main sand cay gives some shelter from the trades, and the lagoon pinnacles are more protected than the outer walls.

Currents can be strong through the reef gaps and over the mid-reef bommies. September–December usually gives the calmest seas and 40 m-plus visibility; December–April is cyclone season.

Descend beside the pinnacles to the depth set in the briefing, work around the up-current faces where the soft corals are thickest, then ascend over the pinnacle tops for a safety stop.

Mike Ball Dive Expeditions (Spoilsport) – 7-night Yongala & Coral Sea (Townsville–Cairns) and 10-night Coral Sea Odyssey, a few departures a year; otherwise private expedition yachts only.