February - where to dive that's not Bali

[Luko]

I guess I was lucky with the weather then to see several mantas in Manta Alley then.

There's more than mantas to Komodo. you can also spot mantas on Makasar reef in August in that respect it is then equal...
but if weather is not on your side, you won't be able to access further south than Padar in august nor up north to Castle in Feb. Plus you may have problems to find a liveaboard plying South Komodo in July/August, while many are scheduling South in Feb..

 

[Dan]

There's more than mantas to Komodo. you can also spot mantas on Makasar reef in August in that respect it is then equal...
but if weather is not on your side, you won't be able to access further south than Padar in august nor up north to Castle in Feb. Plus you may have problems to find a liveaboard plying South Komodo in July/August, while many are scheduling South in Feb..

I went with Mermaid 1 liveaboard in August 2014 for 11-day roundtrip Bali-Komodo. We dove all over Komodo, including Bubbles (Sangeang), GPS Point, Shotgun, Darat Reef (Gili Lawa), Golden Passage, Crystal Rock, Taka Toko, Wanilu, Yellow Wall, Cannibal Rock, Torpedo Alley, Manta Alley, Pink Beach, Batu Bolong (Current City), Takat Makassar (Makassar Reef), Tatawa Besar, Batu Monco and Hot Rocks (Sangeang).

Saw no manta in Makassar Reef. They went south to Manta Alley for some reason.

 

[Luko]

I went with Mermaid 1 liveaboard in August 2014 for 11-day roundtrip Bali-Komodo. We dove all over Komodo, including Bubbles (Sangeang), GPS Point, Shotgun, Darat Reef (Gili Lawa), Golden Passage, Crystal Rock, Taka Toko, Wanilu, Yellow Wall, Cannibal Rock, Torpedo Alley, Manta Alley, Pink Beach, Batu Bolong (Current City), Takat Makassar (Makassar Reef), Tatawa Besar, Batu Monco and Hot Rocks (Sangeang).

Saw no manta in Makassar Reef. They went south to Manta Alley for some reason.

i'm not even sure mantas are seasonal in Komodo : this year I was end of august, saw mantas on Makasar reef, snorkeled with mantas early morning near to Golden Passage, saw mantas circling over us on Crystal rock...

On the other hand hardly any boat from LBJ was going south, our liveaboard even stopped going to Padar from July since sea coditions were too rough..
Bill was on the Mermaid as well at the same time, they didn't go south either.

(Out of topic : how was GPS point?)

 

[Dan]

i'm not even sure mantas are seasonal in Komodo : this year I was end of august, saw mantas on Makasar reef, snorkeled with mantas early morning near to Golden Passage, saw mantas circling over us on Crystal rock...

On the other hand hardly any boat from LBJ was going south, our liveaboard even stopped going to Padar from July since sea coditions were too rough..
Bill was on the Mermaid as well at the same time, they didn't go south either.

(Out of topic : how was GPS point?)

How was GPS Point? It was more than 4 years ago. Don’t remember. You made me digged out into my logbook.

Hopefully my handwriting is legible enough for you.

 

[Luko]

Thanks Dan,
But wow that's a lot of handwork and calculation on your logbook, i would never show mine where's there's hardly written depth and time with reference to some images I shoot.
I was asking the question because I never had the occasion to dive it. It seems like a mythical spot though quite tenuous currentwise, so that operators are quite reluctant on bringing divers on this site. Hence tickled my curiosity. I thought you'd recall whether it was either heaven or hell.
I read 40m deep on EAN32? do you remember whether it was planned like this or due to some dive configuration (good or bad, ie. more interesting deeper, down currents)?

 

[Dan]

Thanks Dan,
But wow that's a lot of handwork and calculation on your logbook, i would never show mine where's there's hardly written depth and time with reference to some images I shoot.
I was asking the question because I never had the occasion to dive it. It seems like a mythical spot though quite tenuous currentwise, so that operators are quite reluctant on bringing divers on this site. Hence tickled my curiosity. I thought you'd recall whether it was either heaven or hell.
I read 40m deep on EAN32? do you remember whether it was planned like this or due to some dive configuration (good or bad, ie. more interesting deeper, down currents)?

I recall a bit about the dive after reading my logbook. It is for advanced divers, who can handle fast current & negative entry (head down & no air in BCD), finning fast to the bottom (where the current easing down), sinking like a rock & equalizing your ears every 2 seconds, similar to diving in The Channel (Maratua Atoll), Darwin (Galapagos), Peleliu Cut (Palau), Submerged Rock (Cocos), the kind of dive where you hook on to a rock & enjoy the pelagic parade show. It's my kind of dives

I used 15L tank to go down to 37m for a couple minutes, then went up to MOD depth of 34m (pO2 of 1.4) to NDL bottom time and spent almost an hour (57 minutes) dive. Apparently I'm OK with short dip dive past MOD. I've done it to 43m in Crystal Bay, Nusa Penida for Mola Mola & 45m in Barnum Wall (Palau) for Zebra shark

No down current that I remember in the dive or in any Komodo dive sites where I have dove in. The only scary down current that I have experienced was in Crystal Bay, Nusa Penida, Bali.

It was a dive as plan. Nothing was so special that it would be stuck in my memory.