Quick opinion on Indonesian Liveaboard selection

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Quick opinions 'Yay/Nay' pls. Going on the Mermaid Superdiversity etc for 16 days and need to pick another liveaboard to go on beforehand. It's in Late October/November. Probably going to hang 5 days in Ambon at the beginning of the trip...I've read the reviews on the board for all these boats, all seem to be decent and I haven't been on any of these boats before...

Ilike - Raja Ampat- Triton- Ambon
Ambai -Banda sea- Ring of Fire -Triton
Blue Manta- Ambon -Banda-Ring of fire-Raja Ampat

thanks in advance..not looking for suggestions on other boats at the moment as i've exhaustively narrowed down to these 3 due to dropoff/pickup and dates-duration .i'm basically looking for stuff like:

* Was on that boat in Nov, would steer clear of Banda in Nov etc.
*Wouldn't do Banda on that boat
*Have done several of those itineraries, prefer xxx fro macro, xxx for pelagic etc.

Thanks!

 

[dirtfarmer]

I did Banda in Nov 2015 and we had the smoothest sailing the boat had ever seen. It was glassy out there, but others have had the opposite. Your milage may vary.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

On a trip, would you want to do more banda dives or more raja ampat dives? the superbiodiversity does 7 dives in the banda. so im thinking that may be enough and i should spend more time in raja ampat on the other boat...

i've never 'dive-ded' Banda...

 

[outofofficebrb]

@Ministryofgiraffes

I just spent a month in Indonesia and did something very similar to you. I started off in Ambon at Dive Into Ambon for 7 days of diving then hopped onto the Mermaid 1 for the Ring of Fire trip for 12 days which is basically the Biodiversity trip without the Raja Ampat section. I finished by returning to Komodo for a 7 day liveaboard. (The only thing that would have made this more perfect would have been to return to Raja Ampat for a 12 day then finish by also returning to Lembeh. I know I'm being greedy!)

Something to note which @dirtfarmer just touched upon. This year's conditions were really rough. We set off in early Oct and thankfully, Mermaid 1 has a steel hull. I met a few folks that went on the Ambai a few days before we set sail and they had to turn around due to the 2-3 meter swells. They were unable to continue on their itinerary through the Banda arc as reported to me by a guest on the boat. She also mentioned that the Seahorse was also out there this year and had to stay put due to the conditions. Our sailing went as scheduled, but the first couple of days were rough. Multiple people were throwing up and no one slept. I've been on many liveaboards and have been on open water crossings before and this was one of the roughest, if not the roughest. Our overnight crossing that should have taken 12 hours ended up taking closer to 17 or 18 due to the conditions. We were at least able to do it. Because so many boats had to change their plans, we ended up having many if not most of the dive sites and volcanic islands to ourselves. Just keep this in mind when you are selecting your boat that conditions can throw your trip sideways, though this year is not "normal" is what I'm reading. Of the boats you listed, only the Blue Manta is a steel hull.

With that said, your itinerary on the Biodiversity trip only does a few days in Raja which I don't feel is enough. Rather than do a repeat of the Ring of Fire portion of your trip, I would suggest going with the Ilike for the itinerary (Raja Ampat and Triton, something new and more of Raja). I've been to Raja Ampat twice and am returning a 3rd time in April to sail with the Ambai - others that have been on it have said good things about it, including someone I know that runs trips for a travel agency. I do know a divemaster on the Ilike and have also read good things about them.

Some folks here did a Banda crossing with Blue Manta recently: Real Time Blue Manta Review: Banda Sea 9 – 19 Sept 2019

Some of my main concerns that I have also heard outside of Scubaboard are that the DMs are not that experienced with the specific dive sites or areas which would be consistent with what was reported to me by a friend that was on that boat - a group spent a lot of time essentially looking at sand. Bummer for the amount they charge. They had a few issues on that sailing so do read the thread.

Something you may want to do is ask each of them their dive policies - for buddy groups and for max dive times. You never know who may end up with you in your group and how it might affect your dive times and profiles. That may also move the needle for you. The Mermaid states 70 minutes for day dives and 60 minutes for night dives and were very flexible if we didn't have to do a crossing or have anywhere to go. I had some 80 minute dives. Essentially, over a period of 12 days and 3-4 dives a day, that is a lot of added time underwater and essentially extra dives.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

thats great, thanks. Mind made up. its the ilike... yes, i did read the blue manta thread as well. it was a good one.

as with all my trips, max photog time is the target and the dropoff at ambon is better then the others as well...and it's a 16 nighter, which will get be somewhere in the region of 75 dives between the two of the trips + a week or so landbased to get me up to 85 ish...


Done and done.

 

[outofofficebrb]

thats great, thanks. Mind made up. its the ilike... yes, i did read the blue manta thread as well. it was a good one.

as with all my trips, max photog time is the target and the dropoff at ambon is better then the others as well...and it's a 16 nighter, which will get be somewhere in the region of 75 dives between the two of the trips + a week or so landbased to get me up to 85 ish...


Done and done.

You are my spirit Canadian!!!! I logged 84. I skipped 1 dive in Ambon because I was tired from the SFO-TPE-CGK-AMQ run. I didn't have an overnight in a hotel and it was all continuous...I'm a savage but I can also sleep on planes like nobody's business. I arrived at 6AM, was at the resort by 6:45AM and was in the water that morning. Being used to 82-84F water in Indonesia, the 74F-76F water sucked the life out of me and I didn't do the 3rd dive that day. I would have done night dives during my week in Ambon if the water were warmer.

You're going to have such an amazing time! I'm getting a little FOMO

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

t's a long way away. i usually only do indonesia/fiji/png on off years. 2020 is:

galapagos
cocos
god's pocket
red sea
month in bonaire
possibly a cheeky last minute trip to belize...

 

[Trailboss123]

@Ministryofgiraffes

I just spent a month in Indonesia and did something very similar to you. I started off in Ambon at Dive Into Ambon for 7 days of diving then hopped onto the Mermaid 1 for the Ring of Fire trip for 12 days which is basically the Biodiversity trip without the Raja Ampat section. I finished by returning to Komodo for a 7 day liveaboard. (The only thing that would have made this more perfect would have been to return to Raja Ampat for a 12 day then finish by also returning to Lembeh. I know I'm being greedy!)

Something to note which @dirtfarmer just touched upon. This year's conditions were really rough. We set off in early Oct and thankfully, Mermaid 1 has a steel hull. I met a few folks that went on the Ambai a few days before we set sail and they had to turn around due to the 2-3 meter swells. They were unable to continue on their itinerary through the Banda arc as reported to me by a guest on the boat. She also mentioned that the Seahorse was also out there this year and had to stay put due to the conditions. Our sailing went as scheduled, but the first couple of days were rough. Multiple people were throwing up and no one slept. I've been on many liveaboards and have been on open water crossings before and this was one of the roughest, if not the roughest. Our overnight crossing that should have taken 12 hours ended up taking closer to 17 or 18 due to the conditions. We were at least able to do it. Because so many boats had to change their plans, we ended up having many if not most of the dive sites and volcanic islands to ourselves. Just keep this in mind when you are selecting your boat that conditions can throw your trip sideways, though this year is not "normal" is what I'm reading. Of the boats you listed, only the Blue Manta is a steel hull.

With that said, your itinerary on the Biodiversity trip only does a few days in Raja which I don't feel is enough. Rather than do a repeat of the Ring of Fire portion of your trip, I would suggest going with the Ilike for the itinerary (Raja Ampat and Triton, something new and more of Raja). I've been to Raja Ampat twice and am returning a 3rd time in April to sail with the Ambai - others that have been on it have said good things about it, including someone I know that runs trips for a travel agency. I do know a divemaster on the Ilike and have also read good things about them.

Some folks here did a Banda crossing with Blue Manta recently: Real Time Blue Manta Review: Banda Sea 9 – 19 Sept 2019

Some of my main concerns that I have also heard outside of Scubaboard are that the DMs are not that experienced with the specific dive sites or areas which would be consistent with what was reported to me by a friend that was on that boat - a group spent a lot of time essentially looking at sand. Bummer for the amount they charge. They had a few issues on that sailing so do read the thread.

Something you may want to do is ask each of them their dive policies - for buddy groups and for max dive times. You never know who may end up with you in your group and how it might affect your dive times and profiles. That may also move the needle for you. The Mermaid states 70 minutes for day dives and 60 minutes for night dives and were very flexible if we didn't have to do a crossing or have anywhere to go. I had some 80 minute dives. Essentially, over a period of 12 days and 3-4 dives a day, that is a lot of added time underwater and essentially extra dives.

What dates in April are you doing the trip on the Ambai?

 

[Dan]

Banda is deep & open sea with very few tiny islands along the Ring of Fire ledge, so if you want to cross it, you better pick a boat that can handle rough sea, such as the 45m steel hulled Blue Manta with 2x726 HP twin engines. I tried to cross Ambon - Banda - Raja Ampat in November 2017 on 33m wooden phinisi boat with 450 HP single engine motor. We hit a storm on the way to Banda and had to turned back to Seram island, skipped Bandaneira and sailed along Seram to Misool.

Mermaid boat is sea worthy enough to handle such rough sea. So you should be good with it.

I have never been on Ilike. It’s 40m wooden phinisi boat with 2x320 HP twin engines. The boat seems big enough size & power for sailing through rough sea and it’s not going through Banda Sea from the itinerary you mentioned and you will spend more time in Raja Ampat. Triton Bay is also good for seeing Whalesharks, I heard. That trip could be a good one to pick in addition to the Mermaid Super Biodiversity Trip.

One pass through Banda Sea is enough for the season to me. This year I went there with Blue Manta in early September. The weather was a bit rough with poor visibility. I learnt that other boats that went there at later time all the way to end of October, got the similar rough weather with poor visibility. If you do it twice (Mermaid & Blue Manta for example), then you would repeat the bad trip.

Raja Ampat tends to have better weather during that time. There are plenty of islands around to shelter from rough sea. So I would recommend none of the itineraries you mentioned above. I would find the Sorong-Sorong Raja Ampat trip after doing the Mermaid Super Biodiversity Trip. You have a lot of LOB choices in Raja Ampat.

 

[outofofficebrb]

What dates in April are you doing the trip on the Ambai?

I will PM you!