Kararu a recent account

[kneptoon]

My GF/dive partner and I just returned from a 3 week trip to Indonesia of which one week was aboard the Cheng Ho. I will try to leave a trip report without directly commenting or responding to the previous posted negative critique of life aboard this liveaboard. We boarded the Cheng Ho in South Bali a seven day voyage, our destination Komodo National Park. I found the ship really beautiful. It is hand made teak built in Indonesia and has the "living feeling" of a wooden ship. It appeared to be in very good repair. I found the cabin a little larger than I anticipated. Everything seemed to be clean and safe. We spent most of our time in the common areas or diving. We slept and showered in the cabin .
Our first day was a bit disappointing as we found that our first dive site would still be in Bali the following morning. The first site was the Liberty wreck. We dove this same site last year and found it only ok. However, this dive was quite good and was like diving a different site entirely, really much better than we had remembered. We dove a couple of other Tulamben, Bali sites and then began our night trip in the direction of Komodo. This was our first liveaboard experience so our expectations were high. The Cheng Ho is a majestic ship, but it is not fast. I found it very comfortable and relaxing. As I caught up on my reading on the stern deck between dives, I thought even without the diving this is really great. There is a common dining/social area in the bow/midship. In conversations with our fellow divers, who most had been on many liveaboards expressed their satisfaction with the overall onboard experience. Someone saying "too bad this is your first liveaboard, as most will pale in comparison". The diving got progressively better the closer we got to Komodo park. The best diving was within the borders of the park. Our 3rd day we dove within the park at Gili Lawa Laut. This one dive was worth the trip. It was a seamount dive on Hard To Find Rock. I am not a photographer and really dive for the big wide view, the experience of total environmental hit, the lavish coral built upon coral and schooling fish of innumerable varieties. We descended trough schools of jacks and permits to 120' with constant flybys of white tip sharks. We coasted with the current across the sea mount always in a profusion of schooling fish. This was a favorite with everyone and we did three more dives on the site on two different days. Another memorable dive was a night dive near Banta. This was more of a macro dive for the photographers in our group. We encountered 2 star gazers, a crocodile fish, octopi, pom pom shrimp, pygmy sea horses, ghost pipe fish, a sea snake, orangoutang crab, moray eels, and feeding lion fish so numerous, they became too obvious. I'm forgetting a lot here, but it was really a camera load of macro stuff.
The dive operation was very well handled. The tender boats drop off and pick up always pretty quickly done. All in all we were very pampered and well guided. If you wanted more or less help, you only needed to ask. The food was always good and plentiful, no one went wanting. We always had a hot shower at the end of the day. The water temp and pressure were not extraordinary, but fine. I did have a leak on one occasion in my cabin which required a change of sheets. Which was done immediately. All of the land/air connections went off perfectly. I think the trip was very well managed, the crew were really friendly and gracious, the diving phenomenal. The only criticism I had of the operation was that the diving was often too slanted to macro photography. I would have preferred more big critter diving within the boundaries of Komodo Park. We will probably rebook for Raj Ampat .
Many thanks to Kerri, Yergen, Gusti, and especially Yoeman

[pakman]

Kneptoon, thanks for the honest report. Hard To Find Rock was my favorite as well. I agree with your comments on it being more "macro" and I've heard the same from others who have been on various liveaboards. I guess they'd have to venture down to south side of Komodo where you are likely to see more pelagics, mantas, etc. Seems not a lot of the liveaboards do that route though... That being said, there are some wonderful coral, lots of interesting critters, and barren and volcanic islands in the region made a wonderful backdrop.

As for stopping off at Tulamben, do you know if you guys were facing any strong currents in Lombok straits. The Sea Safari boats are slow and the currents between Lombok and Bali island can get very strong so maybe they were waiting out the tides. At one point, I think we reckoned we were not making ANY progress against the current in the straight!

[kneptoon]

I think the decision to dive Tulamben was current determined. I know the cruise planners wanted(needed) to offer multiple dives our first full day onboard. Tulamben is probably the furthest dive site from home port before the big jump across the Lombok straits. Our second morning aboard the mountains of Bali still seemed very close in spite of 14 hours of eastward cruising.

[ronscuba]

Nice to read another report on Kararu. The Cheng Ho being a new boat for them, hopefully, we'll see more and more reports. I'm booked with them for next spring in Raja Ampat.

[tboxcar]

About the 'hard to find rock' would that be Castle Rock? which is submerged, and to the south about 1 km (or more going towards land) there is a actually a rock poking out and that is called "crystal rock", correct me if I'm wrong? We did these dives with Reefseekers and between the fish life, visibility and weather, they were EXCELLENT!

[kneptoon]

We also dove Crystal Rock which was near Hard To Find Rock. It sounds as though Castle Rock could be HTFR as it was submerged. But it was named as such.

[silent running]

We also dove Crystal Rock which was near Hard To Find Rock. It sounds as though Castle Rock could be HTFR as it was submerged. But it was named as such.

Thanks for the report kneptoon. I believe Hard to Find Rock is also known as GPS, which was excellent. But I found Crystal Bommie/Rock was a bit better, lots of Grey Reefs and Black Tips on late afternoon dives.

Did you see any Gray Reef sharks or Black Tip sharks anywhere on the trip? There is quite good pelagic activity at the NW point of Banta, dived there twice, both times-a couple of Giant Trevally and schools of Jacks, but some fierce down currents when you round the point... -Andy

[pakman]

silent running, I have Hard To Find Rock and GPS point as two different dives on my log. I forget on which one or possible both, we had mask ripping currents...

[silent running]

silent running, I have Hard To Find Rock and GPS point as two different dives on my log. I forget on which one or possible both, we had mask ripping currents...

I dig pakman, thanks for the info. I guess that means there's another great seamount out there I haven't dived yet...

[kneptoon]

Hard to Find Rock and Crystal Rock definitely had some serious currents. The current at The Aquarium was strong enough to depress your purge button if you faced into it. That was a small channel between Gili Lawa Laut and the a small island to the west. A hawksbill swam against it with no problem. Quite a ride.