Quick opinion on Indonesian Liveaboard selection

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Haha. We’re just old and lonely transients

 

[Schwob]

I always tell myself you can always make more money but you can't make more time or opportunity. YOLO (You only live once) and whatever helps me sleep at night. Get after it if that is what makes you truly happy or if it is something you really want to do. At the end of your days, you will be glad you did it and I can say with much confidence that you won't say that you should have saved that money and _______ with it instead. Or, at least, that's what I keep telling myself!

Yep. Working on it. Seriously. Likely retire mid or end of next year for good. Should already have time for a week of LOB in the Red Sea this January..... but working on getting some answers on some safety questions first on the record so the likelihood of all the good safety ruls communicated being followed being higher... and then I feel I have a chance for that discussion with my wife to at least have a shot at booking that trip. The demise of the RSA1 really got me to think... Mostly because I've been on it, not that it should get me to think more than i.e. the Constellation or any other tragedy... Anyway not meaning to get this thread there. Meaning to say:
Working on changing my life / our lives to have a life again. Hit a snag for the moment, but likely a temporary one...

 

[chillyinCanada]

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...

I think you two are awful for making me so damn jealous.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Also, if Daniel is still the dive leader on the Ambai, diving with him was the best experience that I've ever had in Raja Ampat. He used to be on the Seahorse before it was sold to Wallacea just over a year ago. He ended up on the Ambai, which I hadn't realized so I just returned to the Seahorse hoping for the best.

I still like the little Seahorse, even more so since the refit. The idea of her taking on rough seas and vast open water, maybe not so much. Before the refit, she'd been plying only Raja Ampat and didn't do any transition itineraries.

 

[dumpsterpurrs]

I always tell myself you can always make more money but you can't make more time or opportunity. YOLO (You only live once) and whatever helps me sleep at night. Get after it if that is what makes you truly happy or if it is something you really want to do. At the end of your days, you will be glad you did it and I can say with much confidence that you won't say that you should have saved that money and _______ with it instead. Or, at least, that's what I keep telling myself!

Took me a long time to come to terms with this! Is it so bad that I'm seriously considering the DM course (with RAID) just so I can dive a lot for less money? Before I never could have imagined spending all my money on a hobby like this. I used to only hike, camp, and hitchhike, all costing very little. Scuba comes with one hell of a price tag. But do it. Oh, do it! Spend the money, take the time off, book all those trips.

 

[Melisande Leduc]

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!

Hi there! I just got back from doing a 12-day Raja Ampat itinerary on the Ambai. I will write up a full trip report when I've recovered from the jetlag and the weirdness of being back, but I wanted to say that I cannot recommend Ambai and Wallacea enough. Their trips are pricy, but believe me, it is well worth it. The Ambai is a fabulous boat. It's big and sails smoothly (mind you, we had pretty calm seas, but regardless). There is a lot of space to get away from people if you need to. The food is amazing, and the staff is simply fantastic. They really strive to make everyone happy, which is nearly impossible with 16 people.

We didn't have the best conditions - bad visibility and very strong currents due to the new moon (we even got caught in washing machine situation), but the diving was still fantastic. The guides are top notch. Some are better than others in terms of being engaged and showing stuff, but they all took great care of us underwater. The groups were limited to 4 per dive guide, and they took great care in spacing out the groups so it didn't feel too crowded.

Raja and Misool are very popular, and there are *a lot* of live-aboard. The cruise director did everything he could to make sure we weren't diving the same site at the same time as other boats. For 90% of our dives, we were alone, which was great.

In short, I would strongly recommend any trip on the Ambai. I'm already looking at their other trips...

 

[Dan]

We didn't have the best conditions - bad visibility and very strong currents due to the new moon (we even got caught in washing machine situation), but the diving was still fantastic. The guides are top notch. Some are better than others in terms of being engaged and showing stuff, but they all took great care of us underwater.

@DiverAda mentioned the same. Some divers from another liveaboard got blown away, rescued by Ambai’s crew and provided with oxygen.

Oxygen tank availability is another thing to check when I’m on board an LOB.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Hi there! I just got back from doing a 12-day Raja Ampat itinerary on the Ambai. I will write up a full trip report when I've recovered from the jetlag and the weirdness of being back, but I wanted to say that I cannot recommend Ambai and Wallacea enough. Their trips are pricy, but believe me, it is well worth it. The Ambai is a fabulous boat. It's big and sails smoothly (mind you, we had pretty calm seas, but regardless). There is a lot of space to get away from people if you need to. The food is amazing, and the staff is simply fantastic. They really strive to make everyone happy, which is nearly impossible with 16 people.

We didn't have the best conditions - bad visibility and very strong currents due to the new moon (we even got caught in washing machine situation), but the diving was still fantastic. The guides are top notch. Some are better than others in terms of being engaged and showing stuff, but they all took great care of us underwater. The groups were limited to 4 per dive guide, and they took great care in spacing out the groups so it didn't feel too crowded.

Raja and Misool are very popular, and there are *a lot* of live-aboard. The cruise director did everything he could to make sure we weren't diving the same site at the same time as other boats. For 90% of our dives, we were alone, which was great.

In short, I would strongly recommend any trip on the Ambai. I'm already looking at their other trips...

Is Daniel still the cruise director?

 

[Melisande Leduc]

Is Daniel still the cruise director?

We had Marco.

 

[Melisande Leduc]

@DiverAda mentioned the same. Some divers from another liveaboard got blown away, rescued by Ambai’s crew and provided with oxygen.

Oxygen tank availability is another thing to check when I’m on board an LOB.

Oh hi @DiverAda - it's Mel

Yeah, that was kinda freaky... it could have been way worse though.