Trip Report Bali-Komodo-Bali 12-21 August 2024

[jonesie71]

I went diving with 11 other dive buddies on Mermaid 1 liveaboard in 10-day round trip cruising from Bali to Komodo and back to Bali from 12 to 21 August 2024. We dove along the way to Komodo in Moyo, Satonda, West Sumbawa, Saleh Bay (for whalesharks), Banta, On the way back to Bali we dove in Sangeang and in Moyo.

Most of the trip detail info are provided in the trip video, below. I put together the video clips and photos in chronological order along with dive briefing map provided by Mermaid liveabiard. So you would be able to follow what we saw on any particular dive sites.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Doing this itinerary in July. Bit nervous about the crazy currents I'm hearing about. I've dived Maldives which was fairly intense.
How did you find the currents around Komodo?

 

[Dan]

Doing this itinerary in July. Bit nervous about the crazy currents I'm hearing about. I've dived Maldives which was fairly intense.
How did you find the currents around Komodo?

About the same. If you can handle Maldives currents, you can do Komodo.

 

[Kari81476]

Thanks for the great video and information, Dan! We just booked this trip for August '26. We will plan to spend 2 weeks sightseeing and diving Bali at the same time, it's quite the trek from Minnesota!

 

[cetacean]

Doing this itinerary in July. Bit nervous about the crazy currents I'm hearing about. I've dived Maldives which was fairly intense.
How did you find the currents around Komodo?

We did this itinerary on the Arenui two years ago. I've also spent a week on Moyo previously... the diving can be very, very good there (although occasionally hearing the dynamite fishing in the region can be unsettling underwater).

Re: currents - just got back from the Maldives (Laamu, 3rd time there) and diving in the current there (in the passes) is a bit more of a challenge than Komodo. Sites like Batu Bolong and Shotgun are about holding on (or hooking in) at variious places to see the mantas (or large schools of fish). In the Maldives we found the currents less consistent, sometimes having to make progress into the current to get to a corner or cleaning station. In Komodo there is also the option (for sites like Batu Bolong) to dive out of the current as well. Several divers on our trip opted to be dropped off on the "lee" side of the site to avoid the heavy current. On sites like Shotgun you could drift through the whole dive (you'll still see likely see mantas, but it will be more like passing them on a freeway

 

[Volleyball]

Doing this itinerary in July. Bit nervous about the crazy currents I'm hearing about. I've dived Maldives which was fairly intense.
How did you find the currents around Komodo?

If you're nervous, could you up your cardio? You have nothing to lose by doing so; plan for the worst and hope for the best

We dove the Maldives in May 2024 (North Male), again in August 2024 (Addu City and Fuvahmulah) and are booked for Maldives (Hanifaru/Bae) again this August. We dove Komodo this past Feb. As we all know, things vary, one person's current intensity experience may not be yours. The strongest currents in the Maldives we experienced was in Addu City where they give you reef hooks but we didn't find the currents that strong. In Komodo, we had crazy strong currents often requiring negative entries and it took a minute or two for everyone to get into a group which some struggled with. The intensity of the currents can vary on the wall dives; one meter from the wall was often vastly different than from being 5 meters from the wall which was an issue forming up from a negative entry. In some dive sites, you may need to swim against the currents for extended periods and while strength is important, so is your air consumption while against the current which was why I suggested increasing your cardio in preparation. Thanks to someone I'd guess who was 300+ lbs who wasn't in shape with a big tank on Nitrox, our dive to the Three Sister site with safety stop was under a half hour because of him

It took me under a minute to produce the following...I googled "reddit komodo strong currents", this 3 year old thread comes up:
I then went to ChatGPT and said: "extract all the sentences that say current or currents from here " and here's all the datapoints it produced:

Here are all the sentences from that thread containing the words "current" or "currents":

1. “I did the Komodo aggressor back when i had around 500, and the currents are no joke.” reddit.com+8reddit.com+8scubaboard.com+8
2. “If you want amazing dives with plenty of mantas, and other terrific reef life, then Komodo is fantastic, but the currents are far more powerful than what you've likely experienced before.” reddit.com+8reddit.com+8reddit.com+8
3. “Some sites in Komodo are fine, but the currents can get very, very rough, and half of the time you won't get to see the cool macro critters because you're floating past them at lightning speed.” reddit.com+1reddit.com+1
4. “When I did Komodo, I got lucky and currents weren't that bad.” reddit.com+8reddit.com+8reddit.com+8
5. “Please be very careful.. Be upfront about your experience diving in strong current (number of dives means nothing if they are all calm waters)…” reddit.com+8reddit.com+8scubaboard.com+8
6. “The current was so strong that on the surface we could hear water moving like rapids on a river…” reddit.com
7. “Komodo current was so strong at one point it ripped the mask off my husband's face.” reddit.com+5reddit.com+5reddit.com+5
8. “Are there dive sites in Komodo that are a lot less “current-y” or are they all pretty strong?” reddit.com+5reddit.com+5reddit.com+5
9. “In Bunaken, there were some strong currents (nearly all wall diving)…” reddit.com+4reddit.com+4reddit.com+4
10. “My scariest dive was Pulau Weh too, the currents there were insane, and the DM's were poor.” reddit.com+1reddit.com+1
11. “There are dives in Komodo with very strong currents that I certainly wouldn't suggest to a relatively inexperienced diver.” reddit.com
12. “I was in a dive and the current was so strong that after few minutes of being disoriented we all signaled to surface and we were already way off the coast.” reddit.com
13. “My friend has 80+ dives and was caught in strong current and she got many cuts to her hand cause she panicked and tried to grab some coral.”

 

[Claire Rausch]

The cruising & diving sites (courtesy of Mermaid Liveaboards) is shown in Figure 1, below.

View attachment 865642
Figure 1: Mermaid 1 Bali-Komodo-Bali cruising & diving areas


More detail itinerary, including 28 dive sites, is shown in Figure 2, below.

View attachment 865643
Figure 2: Mermaid 1 12-21 August 2024 itinerary, including dive sites


More detail itinerary in Komodo Area (4 days of diving 15-18 August) is shown in Figure 3, below.

View attachment 865645
Figure 3: Mermaid 1 Komodo itinerary, 15-18 August 2024

Table 1 shows overall itinerary from Day 1 (12 August 2024) to Day 11 (21 August 2024), including dive depth (D), water temperature (*C), and visibility in meters (V).

View attachment 865647

It was a full boat (15 guests). One of the 3 guests that were not from my group was turned out to be @paolobl65 who is an incredible photographer. He contributed some of his pictures that I included in the trip video. Thanks Paolo!

There were 2 Scubaboard members in my group of 12, @uncfnp and @Soloist.

Very nice video - what lights were you using?

 

[LisaDiveNRide]

Hi Dan, thanks for sharing the information and great video. Did you guys do any land based dive in/near Bali? We plan to do a lob in Komodo this summer and was wondering if we should spend a few more days there since it’s a long trip from the states. Thanks!

If you like muck diving, go to Tulamben. I always stay at Villa Markisa and love the personalized service there. PM me if you have specific questions.

 

[Dan]

Very nice video - what lights were you using?

SeaLife SeaDragon 3000 lumens. I recently upgraded to 5000 lumens and 10,000 lumens (dual lights for manta video).