Long over due trip report Oct 20th to Oct 30 Sorong to Ambon on the Blue Manta- diving Raja Ampat and crossing the Banda Sea. This was hands down the most incredible diving we have ever done.
The getting there was brutal We left Little Rock AR Oct 17th at 6a, 2 hour flight to Chicago, 3 hour layover, 14 hour flight to Tokyo, 2.5 hour layover, 7 hour flight to Jakarta where we landed at 1155p Thursday night. Here we were changing from ANA airlines to Lion Air and had a 5 hour layover. 1st mistake-my debit card did not work on their network so I was not able to get any local currency. Will take multiple cards next time. We left out of terminal 3 which compared to the other terminals was a pit. We left at 545a, 45 min layover that included a plane change at Madassa-still amazed our luggage made it. We expected a stop to drop off/pick up passengers but did not know of a plane change. Finally landed in Sorong Friday at 130p. Approximately 38 hours after we left. Cost $10 US to get to the hotel-Swiss-Bel hotel. Would have cost ½ in local currency. Hotel was nice and bed felt great!
Saturday we woke up at 4a (body clocks just a tad confused), had breakfast and Cedric picked us up at 10a. Quick tender ride to Blue Manta and we have arrived. This boat was nice...like real nice,,,,,like REALLY nice. Lower deck has great dive loading area complete with rinse showers and seats. 2nd deck had individual dive cubicles assigned to each diver. We identified our dive gear and they took are of everything else. We carried our masks and computers all other gear (including cameras if so desired) we taken to our tenders- cleaned and rinsed ready for our next dive. Also on the 2nd deck was the camera area-individual stations complete with power strips and a computer for viewing pics. This deck also was the eating area and kitchen. 3rd deck has a very nice seating area, fridge, ice and our cabins. 4th deck was open with day beds and chairs. When we were not diving this is where we spent most of our time.
Final passengers arrived around 2p (they had a flight delay) and we were on our way. Nice briefing about ship operations, eating times, rough dive plans. Safety is a great concern since we will be in the middle of nowhere. We were assigned dive teams-4 divers, 1 dive master and 1 tender driver. We would stagger our dives with each team going out about 15 min apart, rotating which team dove 1st. Nitrox was 29% to ensure a slightly better safety margin, they said it was not uncommon for divers to get excited and go deeper than planned. Dives were not timed and only determined by your air consumption. The couple we were paired with was a great fit-Steve and Michele-both also took pics and had great air consumption.
We did a check out dive at Red Light District about 1.5 hours out of Sorong. OMG!! This was not my typical checkout dive. Incredible fish life, many of similar shapes as the Caribbean but colors were wrong, many unique nudi branchs, huge star fish, leaf fish, wobegone shark. We would looking at the fish id books all week trying to figure out just what we were seeing. 48 ft depth, 108 min.
We did a total of 28 dives (sat out 2 night dives since we were so tired at the start of the trip). We saw pregnant pink pygmy sea horses, jaw fish with eggs, many clown fish, nudi branches, octopus, juvenile lobsters, I am embarrassed to say I just do not know the names of so much of what we saw.
High lights of the trip: Manta ray cleaning station at Magic Mountain. Seeing our first hammer head sharks, then seeing a school of around 300 hammerheads at around 145 ft (we didn't go down that deep), next morning a small school of hammer heads (100+) at 117 feet-these we did see very close, devil rays, mandarin fish....really so many fih and life we had never seen before. We did see why they cut back our nitrox, we did hit deco 3 times this trip. Saw whales on the surface 3 times and dolphins many times. We went to 2 deserted islands for about 45 each and stopped at the spice islands for a couple of hours. We were the 2nd trip of the season, the 1st the week before they saw no hammerheads. We dove a 3/2 wet suits and were fine, many dove 5m suits and most had hoods. Almost all sites had current and sometimes the current changed multiple times on a single dive. Vis was good but not great but this accounted for much better fish life. Shortest dive was 49 min, longest wast 118 min, deepest we dove was 129 ft (hammer heads-got excited). We loved to sit on the top deck, star gaze, read an just enjoy the tranquility.
A typical day started a 6a, life breakfast of fruit and fresh breads, morning dive, back for a full breakfast, 2nd dive, lunch, 3rd dive, some days a 4 dusk or night dive and then dinner. Food was excellent, buffet breakfast and lunch, plated dinner from 2 choices. Great detailed dive briefings complete with reef depictions made from items around the boat (salt shakers, Kleenex boxes-very inventive. Banda sea was dead calm. Boat was incredible and many said it was the best livaboard they had ever been on.
Trip home was a reverse of going down and it sucked. If we had the time we would have arrived earlier to get over jet lag, Since our choice was suck up the jet lag or not go we made the right decision! We will be back.
I am sorry this was so long and feel free to ask any questions you have. Many wonderful memories I did not include in this report, pics to follow if I can figure out how to post
Tanks for reading
Bill and DeeDee
The getting there was brutal We left Little Rock AR Oct 17th at 6a, 2 hour flight to Chicago, 3 hour layover, 14 hour flight to Tokyo, 2.5 hour layover, 7 hour flight to Jakarta where we landed at 1155p Thursday night. Here we were changing from ANA airlines to Lion Air and had a 5 hour layover. 1st mistake-my debit card did not work on their network so I was not able to get any local currency. Will take multiple cards next time. We left out of terminal 3 which compared to the other terminals was a pit. We left at 545a, 45 min layover that included a plane change at Madassa-still amazed our luggage made it. We expected a stop to drop off/pick up passengers but did not know of a plane change. Finally landed in Sorong Friday at 130p. Approximately 38 hours after we left. Cost $10 US to get to the hotel-Swiss-Bel hotel. Would have cost ½ in local currency. Hotel was nice and bed felt great!
Saturday we woke up at 4a (body clocks just a tad confused), had breakfast and Cedric picked us up at 10a. Quick tender ride to Blue Manta and we have arrived. This boat was nice...like real nice,,,,,like REALLY nice. Lower deck has great dive loading area complete with rinse showers and seats. 2nd deck had individual dive cubicles assigned to each diver. We identified our dive gear and they took are of everything else. We carried our masks and computers all other gear (including cameras if so desired) we taken to our tenders- cleaned and rinsed ready for our next dive. Also on the 2nd deck was the camera area-individual stations complete with power strips and a computer for viewing pics. This deck also was the eating area and kitchen. 3rd deck has a very nice seating area, fridge, ice and our cabins. 4th deck was open with day beds and chairs. When we were not diving this is where we spent most of our time.
Final passengers arrived around 2p (they had a flight delay) and we were on our way. Nice briefing about ship operations, eating times, rough dive plans. Safety is a great concern since we will be in the middle of nowhere. We were assigned dive teams-4 divers, 1 dive master and 1 tender driver. We would stagger our dives with each team going out about 15 min apart, rotating which team dove 1st. Nitrox was 29% to ensure a slightly better safety margin, they said it was not uncommon for divers to get excited and go deeper than planned. Dives were not timed and only determined by your air consumption. The couple we were paired with was a great fit-Steve and Michele-both also took pics and had great air consumption.
We did a check out dive at Red Light District about 1.5 hours out of Sorong. OMG!! This was not my typical checkout dive. Incredible fish life, many of similar shapes as the Caribbean but colors were wrong, many unique nudi branchs, huge star fish, leaf fish, wobegone shark. We would looking at the fish id books all week trying to figure out just what we were seeing. 48 ft depth, 108 min.
We did a total of 28 dives (sat out 2 night dives since we were so tired at the start of the trip). We saw pregnant pink pygmy sea horses, jaw fish with eggs, many clown fish, nudi branches, octopus, juvenile lobsters, I am embarrassed to say I just do not know the names of so much of what we saw.
High lights of the trip: Manta ray cleaning station at Magic Mountain. Seeing our first hammer head sharks, then seeing a school of around 300 hammerheads at around 145 ft (we didn't go down that deep), next morning a small school of hammer heads (100+) at 117 feet-these we did see very close, devil rays, mandarin fish....really so many fih and life we had never seen before. We did see why they cut back our nitrox, we did hit deco 3 times this trip. Saw whales on the surface 3 times and dolphins many times. We went to 2 deserted islands for about 45 each and stopped at the spice islands for a couple of hours. We were the 2nd trip of the season, the 1st the week before they saw no hammerheads. We dove a 3/2 wet suits and were fine, many dove 5m suits and most had hoods. Almost all sites had current and sometimes the current changed multiple times on a single dive. Vis was good but not great but this accounted for much better fish life. Shortest dive was 49 min, longest wast 118 min, deepest we dove was 129 ft (hammer heads-got excited). We loved to sit on the top deck, star gaze, read an just enjoy the tranquility.
A typical day started a 6a, life breakfast of fruit and fresh breads, morning dive, back for a full breakfast, 2nd dive, lunch, 3rd dive, some days a 4 dusk or night dive and then dinner. Food was excellent, buffet breakfast and lunch, plated dinner from 2 choices. Great detailed dive briefings complete with reef depictions made from items around the boat (salt shakers, Kleenex boxes-very inventive. Banda sea was dead calm. Boat was incredible and many said it was the best livaboard they had ever been on.
Trip home was a reverse of going down and it sucked. If we had the time we would have arrived earlier to get over jet lag, Since our choice was suck up the jet lag or not go we made the right decision! We will be back.
I am sorry this was so long and feel free to ask any questions you have. Many wonderful memories I did not include in this report, pics to follow if I can figure out how to post
Tanks for reading
Bill and DeeDee
