Raj Ampat Trip Report - Pearl of Papua

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mrrworld

Contributor
Messages
74
Reaction score
32
Location
New Jersey
# of dives
500 - 999
Here’s my trip report from our (my wife and I) one-week trip (March 1-8) on the Pearl of Papua to Raj Ampat. This is my first trip to R4 so my excitement level was very high. I’ve been living in Jakarta for the past three years, leaving in July, so this was my last chance to see this place. I’d say the diving was very good, I was really amazed by the coral reefs (the colors, the size of the reefs, and how intact they are), but probably had too high expectations on the fish life or maybe we just didn’t have great luck. Saw mantas on 5 of the 22 dives, which was awesome, but I was surprised by the lack of other big fish or things I had never seen before (I’ve done slightly more than 500 dives). We saw some black tip reef sharks, barracudas on a few dives, an occasional turtle, but no big schools or anything really new or out of the ordinary. We did see woebbegone sharks on every dive I believe or at least so many that you weren’t even looking that closely for them or at them by the end of the trip. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun, interesting, and well worth it, but I think my expectations were higher to see things I had never seen before.

We did central and northern R4, did not make it to the south as this was only a 7-day trip. Vis was average or what I think is expected for R4, not great but not bad. (I will take mantas over vis any day so no complaints on the vis.) Water was warm, 28 degrees. There were no currents we couldn’t handle although some current on almost every dive. On one we dropped in the wrong spot and had a very tough time getting to the ridge of the reef to descend but once we did, we were ok. We did a few sites twice, which normally I would not be happy about but the second time was always much better than the first visit, reminding me that the ocean is not a zoo. I’ll talk more about the boat later but here is a summary of the dives based on my sporadic entries to my log book:

1. Sorong – Black Rock (Batu Hitam), Day 1: This was our checkout dive but was so disorganized, not sure what to say. We dropped-in in bad vis and a strong current, next thing I know, our group of 13 was down to 4 over some reef and no one else around. We hung around for awhile but since the vis was terrible, and there was nothing to see, and no one else seemed to be near us, we surfaced.
2. Mioskon (Dampier Strait): Highlight was the first of many woebbegone sharks and 15-20 parrot fish in a group. Celebrated doing my 500th dive here.
3. Blue Magic (Dampier Strait): This was a nice dive, with a little bit of everything – BH parrotfish, 5-6 pygmy seahorses on one fan coral, a big yellow fin barracuda, and schools of yellow stripped snapper.
4. Friwinbonda (Dampier Strait): Kind of a wall dive/slopes. Lots of ledges and caves but nothing really memorable.
5. Sounek Bunde (Waisai): Night dive. Lots of crabs. Highlight was watching a waspfish “walking” along the sand. But too many divers under a jetty for my taste.
6. Mantap Sandy (Arborek): This was a manta cleaning station that lived up to its hype. Sometimes six mantas just sitting there getting cleaned. Three juveniles came in to swim around the “adults” but did not wait to be cleaned. At one point, a BH parrot fish was in the back ground. Saw a woebbegone shark as we were departing for our safety stop.
7. Mantap Sandy (Arborek): Same dive, same incredible mantas. I think the ones on this dive were bigger than the previous dive.
8. Mayhem (Yanggefo): Saw another small group of BH parrotfish, nice crocodile fish, and Schultz pipefish.
9. Eagle Rock or Point (Kawe Islands): Nice coral, saw lots of sweetlips but right at end of dive, saw 4 mantas “chasing” each other while doing loops. Really amazing. Than a smaller manta went right by us during our safety stop. Love when that happens!
10. White Arrow (Aljui Bay): Nice wall dive. Kind of dark since we did it late in the afternoon. Caves and ledges were cool, saw a nice featherstar “dancing” out in the open.
11. Reef Bayangan (Penemu Islands): Lots of life here on what looked like a long narrow hill so we went down one side and returned on the other side but easy to be on the ridge looking both ways. Saw 4-6 black tip reef sharks on this one, sharks finally making their entrance. Also lots of trevally.
12. Melissa’s Garden (Penemu Islands): A real coral garden, very beautiful.
13. Kerunemo Adik (Penemu Islands): Very beautiful semi wall dive with real dramatic views. At one point, looked like a forest of this whitish soft coral trees.
14. Chicken Reef (Dampier Straits): Good dive but CD had us very excited in his briefing so we didn’t see as much big stuff as we expected. Did see 2 black tips right at the end of the dive.
15. Cape Kri (Dampier Straits): Nothing to report.
16. Mike’s Point (Dampier Straits): Another nice dive with several caves and ledges to explore.
17. Miosokon (Dampier Straits): 2nd time around for this site but this dive was really awesome. Octopus (turned bleach white except for its head, which stayed reddish brown), blue-spotted ray, big manta near the surface above us, lots of school’s of fish, some really big groupers. Probably the best dive of the trip.
18. Sounek Jetty (Dampier Straits): Night dive. great dive. Couple of crocodile fish, snake eel, too many crabs to remember. Saw a tiny octopus with really long tentacles in comparison to its head size that went down the tiniest of holes in the sand once the lights shone on it for too long.
19. Sardine Run (Dampier Straits): Some black tips.
20. Blue Magic (Dampier Straits): 2nd time around and last dive ending with a whopping bang. Pretty strong current resulting in an unbelievable dive with lots of mantas, black tip sharks, one big grey reef shark cruising back and forth along the reef, Spanish mackerel, small schools of two types of barracudas (yellow tail fin and black tail fin), sea snake, big school of trevally, black crocodile fish. At one point I was following a manta, looked down to see a woebbegone shark swimming below me, and then the big grey reef shark coming from the opposite direction of the manta. One of those dives you surface with your last breath of air and think this is exactly why you go diving.

The Pearl of Papua is a mid to low range boat on the cost scale, I think, so it was not luxury but was fine. It holds 14 divers. We had one of the two rooms above deck. Small but ok. I did not see what the rooms below deck were like but I think I would rather be above deck. Our room was ensuite, had hot water (there were also a few hot water showers at the back of the boat). The crew cleaned up the room every day and would do laundry for a price. Area to gear up was pretty big and there didn’t seem to be any problem with gearing up before the dives despite having 13 divers on the boat. They had fresh water to rinse or soak your stuff after a dive. We had several serious photographers on the boat (I am not one of them) and I did not hear them complain about the set up for their camera equipment but I wasn’t really paying attention.

They took the divers out in two small chase boats, the slower one could fit 4-6 divers, the faster one took 8-10 divers. We all dove together at the same time, which was sometimes chaotic. I’d have preferred that they broke us up but after a few dives, we all seemed to be going our own pace so it wasn’t too bad. Some dives it seemed we were all bunched up looking at the same things or in the same area.

The crew and dive guides were ok. There was a scheduling problem with the CD so the first two days were kind of disorganized including the dives but order was restored when the CD, who was very good in all respects, arrived at the end of the second day. But it did get the trip off to a shaky start and didn’t build a lot of confidence. The two local dive guides I thought were average at best. Nice guys, helpful especially with your gear and carrying stuff, but underwater they were kind of clueless. They did know the reefs but didn’t seem to know how to pace the group and safety didn’t seem to be their strong suit. It’s ok as I can handle myself underwater but when currents switched, you didn’t always know to turn back, keep going. There were some other dicey situations at times underwater but it all worked out. I can’t remember the guides ever pointing out anything to me other than pygmy seahorses, which unfortunately for them, I am not a pygmy seahorse fanatic. Like I said, nice guys, tried hard, but were lacking underwater.

The CD’s dive briefings were very good. Each dive was 1 hour long but with each dive, they seemed to allow us to stay longer and longer and many people were coming up after 70 minutes. Night dives were no more than 90 minutes, which was nice. 70 minutes seemed to be what most people did.

Other random thoughts were two people rented equipment and seemed to have lots of problems with the rental equipment. There is probably two sides to the story on the state of the equipment but it is something to consider if you are renting equipment. On the flip side, the entire crew was very helpful in trying to fix things if you had a problem. My mouthpiece broke and they fixed it quickly for me; my wife had a new regulator that a dive shop in Jakarta mangled in setting up all the hoses but the crew noticed something was wrong while setting up her gear and fixed the problem. I appreciated how flexible the CD was. He wasn’t a stickler on bottom time, he agreed to our plea to do 5 dives one day (we usually did 4 including one night dive), agreed to a request to take a break on a beach somewhere (where I promptly stuck my knee flush into a stinging soft coral or anemone while swimming around!), and a few other things. When we went far north, the morning was supposed to be for a hike to take some pictures instead of diving. But they accommodated a few divers who wanted to go diving instead of hiking even though the diving was not that good in that area. In any event, the boat was open to suggestions.

Food was typical rice, fish/shrimp and chicken fare, mainly Asian with an occasional western dish. It wasn’t gourmet but it was pretty good. They always had some green vegetables and a salad, which was nice. I am no vegetarian but I think if you were, you’d be fine on this combined with the fruit they always served. They had a basket of snacks you could grab from at any time and unlimited drinks. They did run out of orange juice and on the last day, ran out of bottled water. The one problem was the dining area barely fit 13 people so it was a little tight. I have no idea what they would do if there were 14 people on the boat since the dining room did not seat 14 without a very tight squeeze.

There was a nice deck area to hang out but like the dining room, really wasn’t big enough for 14 people. Fortunately for us, part of the group liked to watch videos between dives, which they did in the dining room so there was no fighting for deck chairs. Nothing like internet connection on the boat.

We had a very good group from several countries. I think we used every imaginable airline to get to Sorong. Only the merpati flight was a problem as the airline is bankrupt and had canceled its flights from Bali to Makassar without telling the travelers. Last dive of the trip ended around 11:30 am so having a late morning or afternoon departure flight the next day would leave enough time for a surface internal. for the record, the serious photographer group from Malaysia liked Komodo Islands over Raj Ampat. I’d say the Maldives were better but all agreed it was a good diving trip.
 
I also came back recently from a Raja Ampat trip that was 18 dives. I must concur that the diving was good but I wasn't blown away or anything by it. I think most of what you can see at Raja Ampat can be seen elsewhere in SEA with less hassle. It has the most species of fish but apparently many are thumb sized fish that you would miss if you aren't a marine biologist. The coral and reef was pristine but there was also quite a bit of plastic bags and garbage floating around on some sites as well. Like you I was also surprised that there weren't many large schools of fish. I think the largest school I saw was composed of jacks and even that wasn't very big. Visibility seemed to average about 15 meters.

One good thing about R4 is that it seemed like a sure thing for manta and reef shark sightings. Unfortunately we only saw mantas at one dive site but it was at least 7+ of them at once up close. However we saw dolphins and whales from the boat which was nice.

In hindsight i'm not sure if R4 is worth a repeat trip to be honest. I would like to do Misool since I only did central R4 but the hassle and expense of getting to Sorong is pretty significant once you add up the flying/layover time and associated costs.
 
We didn’t see any garbage on the sites we dove but we did see a small but steady stream of it go by at the surface in Dampier Strait. Kind of depressing, actually.

If you are in the region, getting to Makassar and then onto Sorong doesn’t seem to be too difficult but I imagine getting there from Europe or the Americas would be a drag. I think it would be worth it but you are right about having to consider the extra days to travel and associated costs.
 
Came back from Raja Ampat. The place is awesome if you are interested in soft corals, scenery, small stuff, wobagong and mantas. The dives are easy, visibility is not that great if you are used to the red sea or the Maldives, but I enjoyed the trip, really. One thing to add: relation divemaster to diver was 1 to 3 or 4. Very useful if you want to see macro things....................................Great vacation.
 
I loved it bitterly was painful getting there and back and in that regard I'm speaking of the domestil flights. But now that I am home, the bad part has faded whilst the good parts have me saving my nickels and dimes to get back.
 
Loved Raja Ampat but maybe I was lucky (on the first leg of my trip at least). Did a combo with Liveaboard for 10 nights first. That was amazing, thanks to a great CD. He checked currents while free diving on every dive and we ended up getting our money's worth. Some very fishy dives when we managed to hang at the point where the current hits the reef.
This is the important point here: if you go to the back of the reef, where there is less current, there are no fish. You've got to get the currents right or let your dives go to waste.
On the second leg of the trip, I staid a resort and had some of the very worst guiding in my life. The guys were just running away from the fish and the current, they were obstinate in showing me only lion fish and it was definitely not worth the dough. Heard recently this resort was sold off to a more able dive company. Thank goodness for that.
When going to raja Ampat choose your dive operator even more carefully than you would normally...

Ps: the cd on the Liveaboard was telling me he much prefers Komodo...
 
I can't agree more Cedric, the cruise director and guides are tremendously important to get the best of a trip. I have been four times to R4 and the first trip was significantly below the others, and I think it is mostly due to the dive crew on the boat; they even managed to drop us on a long slope of dead coral, and said that it was Citrus Ridge (one of the glorious sites of the North).

An other example: Black Rock, where the original poster didn't see a thing. We had two brilliant dives there in May last year with blue ring octopus, mating octopus, countless nudis, several ghost pipe fish and different types of eels: luck for a part I am sure, but also very good guiding !
 
I also did a trip with Pearl of Papua early this year (April) and must say the boat is in a terrible shape, needs some serious maintenance. Don't like to write bad things but this is a safety issue.
Its all good inside Dampier Strait but if you get out and the weather is not fine then the problems onboard start.
Dining room is indeed very tight but for us the major problem was the boat lack of safety due to lack of maintenance.
One of the local dive guides was not a good diver either, let alone a good guide. He was in front of the group and that's it, owners need to invest in maintenance and training. Off course most of the crew was nice and doing their best but....
 
RA may not be for everyone. The marine life is incredible - both in terms of diversity and quality of coral and fish life. However, there is a certain degree of similarity between most sites which some people might find a bit monotonous.
The currents can be strong and so the dive guides' local knowledge is important. We had a Spanish instructor guide who made an error with just one dive - gave wrong instructions (said reef to right instead of left) and it all went pear shaped for some of us.

Looking at the OP, they had 2 very productive dives at Manta Sandy; we did just one dive there and there were no manta rays at all. But, unlike others, I started exploring around after 20 minutes and found a lot of other interesting stuff! (BTW, we did see many manta rays in other sites during the trip)
 
I dove with this boat a while back (maybe 2 years?). I would NOT recommend it to anyone. Ever.

We had several issues with the quality of the boat, absent promises, and severe safety concerns that could easily be life threatening. The crew also had no concern for the environment (imagine anchoring a tinny on the reef with a weight belt for our night dive) and were unsafe.
 

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