jamga02
Registered
We booked a trip to Indonesia in February 2015 to dive in and around Raja Ampat. After looking through all of the reviews on ScubaBoard and other sites, discussing the pros and cons with several professional underwater photographers, and also consulting several dive travel agents, we agreed on a trip aboard the Seahorse, along with a stay in Ambon at Maluku Divers for some muck diving. Here is a brief recap of the trip:
Flight landed in Sorong after a night in Jakarta, staying at the FM 7 hotel. FM7 is a quirky hotel very close to the airport that has excellent rooms, great service and really good food at the 2 onsite restaurants.
At the Sorong airport, we were greeted by the cruise director from Seahorse, and efficiently driven over to the boat. The initial impressions of the boat were good; this was our first wooden liveaboard, although we have been on 8 metal boat liveaboards (2 in Indonesia). Beautiful boat, large, lots of deck space and decent rooms up top. Our traveling companions were located below the main deck in a small but nice cabin. We found out that there were only 6 divers on the trip due to a cancellation, which sounded awesome! We would have a dive master for each couple throughout the trip!
First issue of the trip was that the nitrox was not working. The best they could get from the filter was 25-26%. We were told initially that it was due to a bad filter, and that a new filter would be picked up on the 2nd or 3rd day. However, there were floods in Jakarta, and the cruise director stated that we may not get the filters for the trip at all. At this point, I got the feeling that they were not going to try very hard with our group, especially since there were only 6 divers onboard.
For the first couple of days, the diving was excellent. The dive tenders were nice metal boats (2) that you were able to gear up on in the smaller boat. Visibility was excellent and the dives were extremely nice. I would rate 2 of the dives in my top 10 dives of all time. The seas were flat, the weather was perfect.
On the 5th day, the weather turned bad. A bad system was coming up from the south, totaling going against the normal weather patterns for the season. Also, since we were on a point to point cruise, we didn't have a lot of options to run from the storm. The Seahorse had a full boat for the next trip, and they needed to pick up that group in Tual.
On one of the mediocre dives after the weather turned rough, one of our group was separated from us and ended up having to surface. When he surfaced, he wasn't able to see the Seahorse nor the tender boat. He then spent 45 minutes swimming cross current to get to an island. Once he made it to the island, the tender boat came around and collected him. The dive master responsible for him and his buddy apologized to the diver after the dive.
Now to the really bad parts. The remainder of the trip, we were not able to dive the places we were scheduled to dive. I understand that weather is uncontrollable. We ended up diving subpar places that couldn't be helped. However, there were things that the crew did that made it worse, and the true condition of the boat started to be apparent.
One night, the boat hit a coral head at night after breaking anchor, severely tilting to the side after the collision. We started to collect our irreplaceable belongings, thinking we may have to abandon ship. Going up on deck, we found out what had happened, and the crew sent 2 divers to inspect the bottom of the boat. The Seahorse luckily has a very thick keel, and the divers determined there was minimal damage and no threat to the boat.
The crew of the Seahorse had some big problems with the anchors and the setting/removing of the anchors during the trip. We were stuck twice, broke anchor several times, and ended up losing 2 of the 3 anchors.
The weather continued to get worse, and the boat really started to rock. We spent several nights without sleep due to the severe side to side movement of the boat, even when sheltered near islands.
We missed 2.5 days of diving due to the bad weather. And then on the 8th day, one of the mast spar's broke. They didn't have a sail up, but the movement of the boat sheared the mast off. After close inspection, the wooden mast was dry rotted. Due to the position of the broke spar, we were told to stay in our room for an entire day until they removed the mast. This was not a good situation, our air conditioner was hit or miss for near the entire trip. We were not able to go anywhere else on the boat other than our rooms.
We then found out that the cruise director had not told the "true" story about the nitrox. We never received the filter parts mentioned at the beginning of the cruise. She stated then that throughout the trip they were getting 32-34% nitrox at the exit point of the filter, but that when they checked the tanks they only were getting 26%. To me this is a very serious untruth, since this new insight meant that unfiltered air was infiltrating the system after exiting the filter and going thru the distribution system to the tanks. All 6 divers had complained about headaches during the trip. At this point she stated that we would only be charged half price for the nitrox.
We ended up leaving the boat one day early due to the weather and problems on the boat. The last day and a half we spend tied up to the pier in Tual, right beside the industrial port with lots of people and activity, not all of it good. Leaving the boat was very dangerous, with us having to climb across another ship and jump across several large openings. This was scary and not very fun.
Several other points of interest: the dive masters were not very good. One dive master named Daniel was awesome, and one other guide was okay. But the other was really bad, not engaged at all and very disinterested. We all wanted to have Daniel, who tried to show the whole group his finds.
The boat was very loud. Once the waves started up, the creaking from the boat was very noticeable. Our friends had a cabin below deck, and it was very loud in all of the rooms below deck.
The crew were generally very helpful and nice, as was the cruise director mostly.
We were refunded one night from the trip due to us leaving a day early. We were told before leaving that the owner would give us one night free on a future cruise, and that the nitrox was free due to the problems. However, after receiving the bill two days after the trip, they tried to include the nitrox charge in the bill.
The food on the boat was mostly good, although I am not a fan of curry. They served curry at least 4 times. However, diving makes you hungry, so I got through these meals just fine.
I will not use this dive boat again.
Flight landed in Sorong after a night in Jakarta, staying at the FM 7 hotel. FM7 is a quirky hotel very close to the airport that has excellent rooms, great service and really good food at the 2 onsite restaurants.
At the Sorong airport, we were greeted by the cruise director from Seahorse, and efficiently driven over to the boat. The initial impressions of the boat were good; this was our first wooden liveaboard, although we have been on 8 metal boat liveaboards (2 in Indonesia). Beautiful boat, large, lots of deck space and decent rooms up top. Our traveling companions were located below the main deck in a small but nice cabin. We found out that there were only 6 divers on the trip due to a cancellation, which sounded awesome! We would have a dive master for each couple throughout the trip!
First issue of the trip was that the nitrox was not working. The best they could get from the filter was 25-26%. We were told initially that it was due to a bad filter, and that a new filter would be picked up on the 2nd or 3rd day. However, there were floods in Jakarta, and the cruise director stated that we may not get the filters for the trip at all. At this point, I got the feeling that they were not going to try very hard with our group, especially since there were only 6 divers onboard.
For the first couple of days, the diving was excellent. The dive tenders were nice metal boats (2) that you were able to gear up on in the smaller boat. Visibility was excellent and the dives were extremely nice. I would rate 2 of the dives in my top 10 dives of all time. The seas were flat, the weather was perfect.
On the 5th day, the weather turned bad. A bad system was coming up from the south, totaling going against the normal weather patterns for the season. Also, since we were on a point to point cruise, we didn't have a lot of options to run from the storm. The Seahorse had a full boat for the next trip, and they needed to pick up that group in Tual.
On one of the mediocre dives after the weather turned rough, one of our group was separated from us and ended up having to surface. When he surfaced, he wasn't able to see the Seahorse nor the tender boat. He then spent 45 minutes swimming cross current to get to an island. Once he made it to the island, the tender boat came around and collected him. The dive master responsible for him and his buddy apologized to the diver after the dive.
Now to the really bad parts. The remainder of the trip, we were not able to dive the places we were scheduled to dive. I understand that weather is uncontrollable. We ended up diving subpar places that couldn't be helped. However, there were things that the crew did that made it worse, and the true condition of the boat started to be apparent.
One night, the boat hit a coral head at night after breaking anchor, severely tilting to the side after the collision. We started to collect our irreplaceable belongings, thinking we may have to abandon ship. Going up on deck, we found out what had happened, and the crew sent 2 divers to inspect the bottom of the boat. The Seahorse luckily has a very thick keel, and the divers determined there was minimal damage and no threat to the boat.
The crew of the Seahorse had some big problems with the anchors and the setting/removing of the anchors during the trip. We were stuck twice, broke anchor several times, and ended up losing 2 of the 3 anchors.
The weather continued to get worse, and the boat really started to rock. We spent several nights without sleep due to the severe side to side movement of the boat, even when sheltered near islands.
We missed 2.5 days of diving due to the bad weather. And then on the 8th day, one of the mast spar's broke. They didn't have a sail up, but the movement of the boat sheared the mast off. After close inspection, the wooden mast was dry rotted. Due to the position of the broke spar, we were told to stay in our room for an entire day until they removed the mast. This was not a good situation, our air conditioner was hit or miss for near the entire trip. We were not able to go anywhere else on the boat other than our rooms.
We then found out that the cruise director had not told the "true" story about the nitrox. We never received the filter parts mentioned at the beginning of the cruise. She stated then that throughout the trip they were getting 32-34% nitrox at the exit point of the filter, but that when they checked the tanks they only were getting 26%. To me this is a very serious untruth, since this new insight meant that unfiltered air was infiltrating the system after exiting the filter and going thru the distribution system to the tanks. All 6 divers had complained about headaches during the trip. At this point she stated that we would only be charged half price for the nitrox.
We ended up leaving the boat one day early due to the weather and problems on the boat. The last day and a half we spend tied up to the pier in Tual, right beside the industrial port with lots of people and activity, not all of it good. Leaving the boat was very dangerous, with us having to climb across another ship and jump across several large openings. This was scary and not very fun.
Several other points of interest: the dive masters were not very good. One dive master named Daniel was awesome, and one other guide was okay. But the other was really bad, not engaged at all and very disinterested. We all wanted to have Daniel, who tried to show the whole group his finds.
The boat was very loud. Once the waves started up, the creaking from the boat was very noticeable. Our friends had a cabin below deck, and it was very loud in all of the rooms below deck.
The crew were generally very helpful and nice, as was the cruise director mostly.
We were refunded one night from the trip due to us leaving a day early. We were told before leaving that the owner would give us one night free on a future cruise, and that the nitrox was free due to the problems. However, after receiving the bill two days after the trip, they tried to include the nitrox charge in the bill.
The food on the boat was mostly good, although I am not a fan of curry. They served curry at least 4 times. However, diving makes you hungry, so I got through these meals just fine.
I will not use this dive boat again.
