Erwin Poliakoff
Contributor
My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Indonesia, and the main purpose of the trip was to dive the varied Raja Ampat sites on the Gaia liveaboard, a relatively new boat on the scene. We started with a few days of muck diving in Lembeh, which was very good, and I will have a separate post on that part of the trip. We have split our dive trips in the past between a little bit of muck diving and a lot of reef diving, and this strategy works well for us. We flew from Manado to Sorong, where we were met by representatives from the Gaia, and everything went smoothly. We took a skiff from the dock to the liveaboard, and I have to say, we were overwhelmed by how nice the boat was. It is a steel boat, as opposed to the typical Indonesian wood liveaboards. I have been on two other Indonesian liveaboards, both of which I liked very much, but the Gaia was really a cut above. It is much wider, which made everything from the dive deck to the lounge to the individual cabins considerably more spacious. The crew was also fantastic (we had dived with three of the guides at other Indonesian resorts in the past). The trip was arranged by Ultimate Dive Travel, so we knew a few of the other divers on the boat before arriving. The whole complement of divers was very nice. Everyone was friendly and considerate. My wife has multiple sclerosis, so she needs a little extra help getting into the dive skiffs and whatnot, and the crew was gracious and helpful; much appreciated. Incidentally, the skiffs that you take to the dive sites were specially designed and the ladder is built in to the side of the skiff; as a result, the top step of the ladder is level with the skiff deck, making the ascent back into the dive skiff much easier than typical boats. This type of attention to detail was typical.
The diving itself was wonderful. The reefs were in fantastic shape, and incredibly fishy. We saw all of the usual suspects, including lots of manta rays, bumphead parrotfish, schools of jacks and fusiliers, and a wide variety of other beautiful reefy stuff. However, the visibility for the northern sites at the beginning of the trip was pretty mediocre (even worse than it typically is). As a result, the hosts decided to head south before the actual scheduled time; it was a good decision because the diving improved considerably. There are more liveaboards than ever in Raja Ampat, and the coordination between the boats is getting more complex than ever. With that said, there were no real problems getting to the best sites. I am going to check out some of the other routes for future trips to get a sense of the alternatives (e.g., Triton Bay, Banda crossing).
Here are a few pictures to give a sense of the diving.
06_DSC_1397 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
07_DSC_2150 manta ray by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
03_DSC_1328 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
39_DSC_1354 coleman shrimp by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
10_DSC_2062 fusiliers by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
35_DSC_1966 bumphead parrotfish by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
54_DSC_1913 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr
The whole set can be found here: 2019 Gaia liveaboard Raja Ampat pics
The diving itself was wonderful. The reefs were in fantastic shape, and incredibly fishy. We saw all of the usual suspects, including lots of manta rays, bumphead parrotfish, schools of jacks and fusiliers, and a wide variety of other beautiful reefy stuff. However, the visibility for the northern sites at the beginning of the trip was pretty mediocre (even worse than it typically is). As a result, the hosts decided to head south before the actual scheduled time; it was a good decision because the diving improved considerably. There are more liveaboards than ever in Raja Ampat, and the coordination between the boats is getting more complex than ever. With that said, there were no real problems getting to the best sites. I am going to check out some of the other routes for future trips to get a sense of the alternatives (e.g., Triton Bay, Banda crossing).
Here are a few pictures to give a sense of the diving.
The whole set can be found here: 2019 Gaia liveaboard Raja Ampat pics
