The reef around the Sunlover pontoon is where most visitors to Moore Reef have their first look at the Great Barrier Reef, and for certified divers it is a straightforward, well-organised dive. Sunlover's pontoon is permanently moored on the outer reef, and its dive team runs certified dives to a maximum of 18 m with about 50 minutes underwater, as well as introductory scuba dives with no more than four divers per instructor, return-to-diving refreshers and Seawalker helmet dives on a platform at 3.5 m. Marine biologists on board give interpretation talks.

The reef immediately around the pontoon is a coral garden sloping away from the reef crest, with branching staghorn thickets, plate corals and boulder corals in the shallows and gullies cutting down the slope. Dive the World describes Moore as a nursery reef and a good site for macro photography, with juvenile fish, rays, grey and whitetip reef sharks, schooling juvenile barracuda, butterflyfish and angelfish in pairs, trevally, cardinalfish, parrotfish, sweetlips, lionfish, nudibranchs, shrimps and crabs. Maori wrasse are regular visitors around the pontoon.

Certified divers are usually taken to City Hall, a pinnacle with swim-throughs and resident turtles, which is described separately. The pontoon suits families and mixed groups where not everyone dives, since snorkelling, a semi-submarine and an underwater observatory are available. It is not a wilderness experience, as hundreds of visitors may be on the pontoon at once, but the diving is reliable and the logistics are simple.

Check-in and transfers are simple, which suits first-time visitors. Divers who want a deeper or more demanding profile should consider a dedicated dive boat, but for a first reef dive the pontoon reef is hard to beat.

Boat access only. Cairns day boats leave from the Reef Fleet Terminal (1 Spence Street) and the neighbouring Marlin Marina on the city waterfront, with check-in between about 7:00 and 8:00 am; most operators run transfers from city and northern-beaches accommodation, and there is paid parking near the terminal. The run of about 47 km out through Trinity Inlet and across the lagoon to Moore Reef takes around 90 minutes on a fast catamaran and noticeably longer on slower dive boats or into a south-easterly chop.

Sunlover checks in at the Reef Fleet Terminal between 8:45 and 9:45 am for its daily catamaran to the Moore Reef pontoon. Dive gear is supplied on the pontoon; certified divers join a guided dive from the dive platform, and introductory divers are limited to four per instructor.

The prevailing south-east trade winds (typically 15-25 knots from April to September) are what limit Cairns outer-reef diving: above about 25 knots trips may be cancelled, and exposed eastern moorings are used only in light winds. Summer northerlies are gentler but make north-facing moorings choppy. Box jellyfish and Irukandji are present from about November to May (stinger suits on every dive), and the cyclone season runs November to April, when a system in the Coral Sea can close the reef for days.

Visibility drops after heavy rain and strong winds; spring is usually calmest and clearest. Moore's horseshoe shape shelters its western side in south-easterlies, so the pontoons run in most weather short of a gale or cyclone. The pontoon operates in almost all conditions; in strong winds the catamaran ride is rough but the reef beside the pontoon remains sheltered.

Guided dives start from the pontoon's dive platform, descend the reef slope to 12-18 m and return across the coral garden in 3-8 m, where the safety stop is completed beside the pontoon. Introductory divers stay in the shallows under close instructor supervision.

Sunlover Reef Cruises – daily pontoon trips: certified dives to 18 m (about 50 minutes), introductory dives, refresher dives and Seawalker helmet dives