Raja Ampat itinerary & LOB advice: Damai 2 or Blue Manta?

[Dan]

I've been on both, food wise, Damai is the best. For other stuff I'll choose the blue manta. Depends what is important for you.

The food in Blue Manta is so-so, below my expectation for the $$$$ I paid for the trip. The boat itself is as expected and fit for sailing through open water like the Banda Sea.

Raja Ampat water is surrounded by islands, so Phinisi boat is fine.

 

[acidrush]

The food in Blue Manta is so-so, below my expectation for the $$$$ I paid for the trip. The boat itself is as expected and fit for sailing through open water like the Banda Sea.

Raja Ampat water is surrounded by islands, so Phinisi boat is fine.

The Damai boats are also more conservative when it comes to diving, they tend to avoid currents (maybe because of client profiles?) I prefer bigger stuff and schools of fishes, so you need some currents to see them.

 

[Dan]

The Damai boats are also more conservative when it comes to diving, they tend to avoid currents (maybe because of client profiles?) I prefer bigger stuff and schools of fishes, so you need some currents to see them.

It sounds like not my kind of boat then. Why go to Raja Ampat (RA) if you want to avoid current. No current = no fish. Blue Manta embraces current dives.

Nothing to be afraid of current. You just need to know how to handle it. Drifting with the current with tons of various schooling fish, which is the unique feature of Raja Ampat, is very exhilarating. That’s the reason I keep coming back to RA.

Finning against the current is not fun & wasting lots of gas. A good DM knows how to avoid such situation.

Hooking on a rock in a current dive & watch the fish go by is my kind of diving now. I’ll put off the muck diving in the shallow, preferably under a jetty at night dive, when the boat anchored for the night.

 

[acidrush]

It sounds like not my kind of boat then. Why go to Raja Ampat (RA) if you want to avoid current. No current = no fish. Blue Manta embraces current dives.

That's why I personally prefer diving with the BM although food is better on the damai. If you love macro and good food, Damai boats are the place for you. If you want schooling fish with currents, BM is the one for you.

 

[Dan]

The 10N (30 dive) Blue Manta trip is round-trip from Sorong and includes Daram, Misool (12 dives: Wayil, Fiabacet & Boo, Balubulol & Farondi), Pianemu, Manta ridge and Dampier Strait, Kri area, and Misokon Island.

This’s very good itinerary. I’ve done it 3x. The 4th one will be in January 2020. Don’t take RA trip for less than 10 days & without Misool.

2 special places that stuck in mind for diving in RA are:
1. Magic Mountain in Misool for Oceanic Manta cleaning station. I haven’t seen Oceanic Manta any where else in Indonesia, except in this site. Other Manta cleaning station in Indonesia are mostly for Reef Manta. Other Oceanic Manta sites I have seen would be in East Pacific, in places like Cocos & Socorro.

2. Melissa’s Garden in Penemu for hard corrals. They are so thick that you can’t see the bottom. The next one come close to this site is Lava Flow in Banda Neira.

 

[YYCdivers]

I've been on both, food wise, Damai is the best. For other stuff I'll choose the blue manta. Depends what is important for you.

Thanks Acidrush! The fact that you have been on both is very helpful. We are not picky eaters and the food Dan described in his recent trip report would be fine for us. Can you expand on which "other stuff" is better with Blue Manta? Would you still pick Blue Manta over Damai II even though it is two nights shorter as skips Triton Bay, Mommon, and Pulau Pisang? Or does including these more out of the way spots make up for any "deficiencies" am the Damai II?

 

[Dan]

Here is what I gather from both trip itineraries:
Triton Bay-Sorong (D2) covers a lot more distance (as shown in black line, above) with more of open sea from Kaimana to Misool than Sorong-Misool-Sorong (BM, as shown by the red line, above). Therefore you would spend more time on sailing than diving on D2 than on BM, as indicated by the numbers of dives 30 dives in 10 days for BM vs. 35 dives in 12 days for D2.

Misool-Sorong itinerary of both trips would be the same. However you will do more diving in the Misool area with BM with less sailing time than with D2.

The good thing about D2, it starts from Triton Bay. From watching the YouTube video, below, you may pass Bagan, where you can dive with Whalesharks like in Cendrawasih Bay or Sangalaki/Kakaban/Maratua. That’s an interesting experience. I’ve been to Cendrawasih Bay for similar diving. Basically you have 2 more days of sailing, diving plus a chance to dive with whalesharks for the difference in the price you pay.


Your flight time & cost will be about the same, flying half around the world, spending 30+ hours on flights one way to Sorong or Kaimana. I would pick the Triton Bay.

My concern is sailing in the open sea from Kaimana to Misool with Phinisi boat. I have done it in Cendrawasih Bay with Pearl of Papua. It wasn't fun during the storm. Another one was from Ambon to Banda Neira with La Galigo. We didn't make it & detoured to Ceram. After those experiences, I stick with big metal boat like BM for sailing on such passages.

Unfortunately I have never been to Triton Bay, but it’s in my bucket list. Hoping BM would do Triton Bay to Sorong some day.

Have fun diving in March 2020!

 

[Cali_diver]

This is not my experience at all. We look for and love current. I have been on more Damai cruises than I can count.. the only time a group or tender avoids current is when the divers request or cannot handle it.

The Damai boats are also more conservative when it comes to diving, they tend to avoid currents (maybe because of client profiles?) I prefer bigger stuff and schools of fishes, so you need some currents to see them.

his

 

[foob]

In general liveaboards do whatever the guests request, towards the most conservative diver. So one might get lucky and just get a conservative diver.

I'm tired of people booking departure flights early forcing itinerary changes to suit them instead of them sitting out of dives. Argh.

Best case, book the whole boat and only invite people who are less conservative heh.

 

[acidrush]

Thanks Acidrush! The fact that you have been on both is very helpful. We are not picky eaters and the food Dan described in his recent trip report would be fine for us. Can you expand on which "other stuff" is better with Blue Manta? Would you still pick Blue Manta over Damai II even though it is two nights shorter as skips Triton Bay, Mommon, and Pulau Pisang? Or does including these more out of the way spots make up for any "deficiencies" am the Damai II?

In this case I would pick the Damai as Triton bay is worth going to since you're already there. I've been of 3 Damai trips, not as many as cali_diver. Perhaps I was just unlucky but we always seem to do the easier sites with less currents. Maybe its because of the profile or request of the guest. Its usually gentle drifts along the reef. Where as on the BM, it is dropping off away from the site and drifting into the sweet spot where the current hits the point/cape/reef. That's where the whole food chain lines up. BM is also a steel boat so no creaking when trying to sleep and having wifi is nice. Best thing for me personally is the size of the boat so the guest are more spread out and you can always find somewhere if you want to chill alone.