Damselfish
Contributor
We did the Arenui earlier in 2018 and while it was an awesome trip, we didn't like the dive deck layout and procedures so much. You dressed and waited on the "dive deck" near the bow, but main gear was kept elsewhere after initial setup, inaccessible unless you asked a crew member to bring it to you or get something. (Which they were happy to do, but it was a nuisance and sometimes a problem.) Otherwise you never saw it the entire trip except on the tender. To get to the tenders, we had to cut through the dining room with it's lovely wooden floor, a constant slipping hazard with crew always laying towels on the floor and mopping up the water. Along with this, there was no reasonable way to analyze your own Nitrox tanks. We gave up on that idea and decided to trust our DM - yeah I know but he was good and there's only 4 divers per DM.
So I'm planning our next Indo trip and among other things debating wooden phinisi vs. some of the metal hulled boats like Blue Manta or Mermaid. On the Arenui, they said they laid things out this way (at least as far as the passing through the dining room part) to make the dining room bigger. Is this dive deck routine typical on all phinisi boats, or peculiar to only some? Wondering in particular about the Damai boats, Aurora, Samambaia, but info on any similar would be good to know.
So I'm planning our next Indo trip and among other things debating wooden phinisi vs. some of the metal hulled boats like Blue Manta or Mermaid. On the Arenui, they said they laid things out this way (at least as far as the passing through the dining room part) to make the dining room bigger. Is this dive deck routine typical on all phinisi boats, or peculiar to only some? Wondering in particular about the Damai boats, Aurora, Samambaia, but info on any similar would be good to know.