Anybody been on Febrina (north New Britain Island) lately?

[ewaiea]

Well today, I finally pulled the trigger....now comes the agonizing 10 month wait for the trip to finally happen.

I am on my way to Papua New Guinea to dive north New Britain Island. It's the first time ever that I'm returning to a destination AND diving the same area that I dove in 2010. I have dove Palau and Cocos Island since, and they were awesome....but they were not as good as PNG. So I am finally heading back.

Having been there once, my first trip I went on the Star Dancer....this time I'm going on the Febrina. It's my first time doing a non-Aggressor/Dancer trip.

Question 1.) How does the Febrina compare to the experience you'd have on a Dancer/Aggressor Fleet trip? AND....(the all important question)....is there plenty of wine for two or three glasses a day?

Question 2.) When I first went to PNG we dove Kimbe, then the Witus then Father's Reef. The itinerary will be the same this time. Does the pattern stay the same pretty much on Febrina with deeper dives on the bommies offshore during the morning and mid-day, and then muck dives at night?

Question 3.) Does the crew practice good dive stewardship? Meaning, do they have good buoyancy skills and not do things to the reef that are destructive?

Question 4.) Not the most important thing in the world, but how good is the food? I'm pretty easy to please...but nonetheless, I appreciate extra effort if it's made.

Any additional information about Febrina would be helpful too.

 

[Kevster]

Lucky you.
i was on the Febrina last year. It was brilliant. One of the best boats I have been on. I posted a trip report in the pacific forum.
1. Only been on 1 aggressor boat , febrina much better. There was free wine at dinner which is very generous considering the price of wine alcohol in png. Normally a bottle of red and white each evening for the guests. Depends how big a group and how many drinkers there are. My trip there was always 2 glasses. Quality was decent Aussie wine.
2. Only muck dives at witus. But generally 5 fives a day. Fathers was deep.
3. The 2 guides may be the best guides I have dived with... Digger and Jose are great to dive with. Basically you can do your own thing or follow the guides. They feed a very friendly small turtle which may or may not be good practice.other than that they are very friendly, happy guides. Digger ,Jose and Alan are part of the reason the febrina is such a great experience. Basically Jose is in charge...
4. Food was good especially considering you are in remote png.

The he trip I was on only had 6 guests on board so there was lots of space. If the boat was full space may be an issue as it's a small boat.

Basically the febrina and the bilikiki are my fav boats.

 

[ewaiea]

Thanks so much for the response.

I don't really drink more than a glass of wine with dinner and maybe one after that, but it's nice to have the option. The Febrina states that they charge for wine onboard except for with dinner. I may grab some at the duty free in Port Moresby.

Yeah, that's true about the muck dives, I don't recall doing muck diving at Father's Reef area....but I do recall their being a few good muck sites in Kimbe....well, you might call them inshore sites because they don't have the black-sand feel that the Witu's have, but they were still cool too.

I managed to secure one of the single cabins. I've had a room to myself once on a liveaboard in Palau but it was by accident because the boat was only 1/3 full. But this boat will likely sell out and for a few hundred dollars more for a 10 night charter I could snag the single cabin....so I figured what the heck.

If anyone else wants to chime in about Febrina I'm all ears! I have a feeling I will like it though.

 

[Gabster]

I was there last July. Great crew - although Alan wasn't there at the time unfortunately. Josie is brilliant as was Digger. Diving practices good - guides generally careful with the reef although not as much as sone boats I have dived from.

Agree with comments above. If full, would be quite crowded. Food mostly good especially freshly made bread every day.

Diving great. Lots to see. Mostly not that deep where we were. Some currents although obviously dives planned to try to avoid them. Night diving not brilliant and some 'stinging stuff' ! but I did a few. Diving all takes place to and from Febrina.

All in, it will be a great trip - lucky you

 

[ewaiea]

I appreciate all the great confirmations of the Febrina. I'll be sure to write a great trip report and enclose some photos. I've also cashed in my Delta award miles and had enough for a roundtrip ticket from Minneapolis to Sydney in First class/business elite. The flight route will be a "domestic" first class seat from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, then a "lie-flat" seat from Los Angeles to Sydney. I still have to pay for my airfare from Sydney to Hoskins - but that'll be a coach ticket for sure. If any of you are interested in having an expanded trip report to include Delta's Business Elite experience I'd be happy to include that in my trip report as well.

 

[Hintermann]

Glad to see positive impressions. I have got a confirmed booking on the 10-day 'signature cruise' on the Febrina starting 5th October 2015.

 

[Shasta_man]

I think Eric Cheng and the guys on the wetpixel website went on that boat somewhat recently... or was it the Golden Dawn?... I see you are heading for PNG again. Have it made it to any other spots like Indonesia or Fiji yet? You've made a good choice, I'm just thinking of variety of location and cheaper to get to. The kicker in PNG is you pay the big money to get to Australia but then the flight over to POM is pretty expensive too and always the departure dates don't line up well so you end up paying more days and overnights in PNG until you can leave. I do have to get there one day though.

 

[mike jj]

heading there for the first time in july aug. will give you a recent trip report when we get back

Mike