Real Time Blue Manta Review: Banda Sea 9 – 19 Sept 2019

[Dan]

Oh NO!! That sucks!!! Especially out in the middle of no-where.
Loving this real-time trip report!!
Hope the diving conditions clear up for you guys and that you get luck with some hammers!!

It started bad. A group of 5 divers missed the connection flight & arrived late afternoon on the 9th. So we cancelled the check out dive to the next day. Then you read the rest of the story.

On this Friday the 13th, one of the dinghies had a crack bottom, it started to taken in water. They try to salvage as much as they can out if it. Hopefully we had all the bad luck we deserved and things will get better from now on.

 

[scubaNYC16]

When we arrived into Labuan Bajo, Nam sent half the plane’s bags back to Bali. 7 of us on the boat didn’t have any of our luggage or gear. We arrived at 1130am, got on boat at 1pm and finally got our bags on the boat at 930pm. BM was great and took care of all the bags for us.

 

[outofofficebrb]

It started bad. A group of 5 divers missed the connection flight & arrived late afternoon on the 9th. So we cancelled the check out dive to the next day. Then you read the rest of the story.

On this Friday the 13th, one of the dinghies had a crack bottom, it started to taken in water. They try to salvage as much as they can out if it. Hopefully we had all the bad luck we deserved and things will get better from now on.

I always leave at least 3+ hours for international connections and a little more for that if I am arriving on an international flight and having to pick up bags and recheck them if it’s on a separate ticket. I aim to arrive and be settled at my hotel at least 24 hours before pick up time with the liveaboard - that way if I miss a flight and it’s only 1X a day I can get on the next one and still be on time for the boat. At least they didn’t miss the boat so that’s good.

I hope things are on the up and up!

 

[billt4sf]

Great dive this morning - 25m wall with small caves, I found a beautiful moray stretched out in one of the caves (call it a deep ledge), then a lovely soft coral garden for the S/S.

Yesterday afternoon we had a nice wall dive, when we came to the top surface of the reef, I was expecting a coral garden - instead it was complete rubble. Coral rubble. it must have been a nice hard coral garden, the DM said it has been dynamited. I tell you -- it was worth seeing once. Very impressive in a horrible way! It looked recent to my untrained eyes.

- Bill

 

[billt4sf]

Please tell me that is not one of the dive dinghies from the Blue Manta and that it belongs to another boat in a remote region of Indonesia. What happened????

You guys are not really selling the Blue Manta trip right now

It is one of the BM skiffs. I am not sure what the true story is, various things are being said, but in any case it was sunk at one time and is now on the beach on the adjacent island.

- Bill

 

[billt4sf]

What's the Cruise Director's name?

Igoy I think.

 

[billt4sf]

The check out dive was a bust. We were dropped on top of a wall with fast current and got blown away to the shallow and had to fin & crawl like hell to get back to the wall. I got some scratches on my “no glove” rule fingers. By the time I got to the wall, 1000 psi was consumed. I looked back & found one of my less experienced & younger buddy, was just gave up & hooked in to a rock alone. I had to go back to him & accompanied him. His tank was about half consumed with bleeding fingers. So, I signaled him to thumb the dive. I launched my DSMB from 40’ depth to make sure the zodiac driver spotted our location, while doing 3-min safety stop. What Batman should have done, as a good DM is to first check the current direction & to drop us in the blue so we could drift towards the wall.

Dan, we also got dropped on sand for the check dive and had to fin the whole time towards the wall ad we never got there. I don't necessarily "blame" Batman, I would blame Egoi (the CD), if anyone, for that choice. A wall drift dive seems a weird choice for a check dive. Usually it would be a slope with no current? We had already dived for a week in Komodo, but had we not done so I would have HATED that choice.

- Bill

 

[Dan]

They fixed the dinghy. An old patch hole on the side was cracked from the rough ride last night. They repatched it. We are good to go for tomorrow diving adventure in Ring of Fire.

 

[billt4sf]

Here's another thing no one else will care about but Big Bill: The BM has a design fault.

The level from which one transits to another boat is at the level of the ocean. Seems cool, and is nice in flat ocean - but when is the ocean ever flat? See pic. (Here, the sea is nearly flat).

When the tenders arrive to the main boat, the gunwale of the tender is above that of the BM. Fine, step onto the gunwale, and into the tender. Imperfect, but not too bad.

But guess what happens in mildly rough seas? That tender washes onto the lower level of the BM! That's just plain stupid design.

So we have this absolutely fine loading platform, but where do we load from? The narrow SIDE of the platform! STUPID and dangerous. And when there are medium rough seas? -- you are stepping from one bouncing boat into another, across a narrow path, in the middle of which are two capstans.

Most people do it, and I guess are fine with it? With my many birthdays and bad balance -- I am skipping dives.

I'll try to get a short video of when the seas are medium.

- Bill

 

[acidrush]

Here's another thing no one else will care about but Big Bill: The BM has a design fault.

The level from which one transits to another boat is at the level of the ocean. Seems cool, and is nice in flat ocean - but when is the ocean ever flat? See pic. (Here, the sea is nearly flat).
View attachment 539820


When the tenders arrive to the main boat, the gunwale of the tender is above that of the BM. Fine, step onto the gunwale, and into the tender. Imperfect, but not too bad.

View attachment 539821


But guess what happens in mildly rough seas? That tender washes onto the lower level of the BM! That's just plain stupid design.

So we have this absolutely fine loading platform, but where do we load from? The narrow SIDE of the platform! STUPID and dangerous. And when there are medium rough seas? -- you are stepping from one bouncing boat into another, across a narrow path, in the middle of which are two capstans.

Most people do it, and I guess are fine with it? With my many birthdays and bad balance -- I am skipping dives.

I'll try to get a short video of when the seas are medium.

- Bill

I would have thought it would be good? Stepping off the tender straight onto the boat?