North Sulawesi Aggressor

[Bosun]

We had an excellent trip to Kungkungan Bay Resort in North Sulawesi, Indonesia in 2005 and are booking a return trip to include a week on the North Sulawesi Aggressor. Does anybody have any experience of this live-aboard that they could share?
Thanks in advance for any responses.

 

[Bowmouth]

The North Sulawesi Agressor has a very limited itinerary and just visits Bangka and Gangga Island and the Lembeh Straits. All those sites can be easily reached with local daytrip dive operators.
Ocean Rover Liveaboard Diving Cruises offers cruises that will take you up further North and also cover Bunaken and the Minahasa Lagoon area.

 

[rickyd]

The North Sulawesi Agressor has a very limited itinerary and just visits Bangka and Gangga Island and the Lembeh Straits. All those sites can be easily reached with local daytrip dive operators.
Ocean Rover Liveaboard Diving Cruises offers cruises that will take you up further North and also cover Bunaken and the Minahasa Lagoon area.

The Serenade, run by Murex, goes way up to the northern islands. It's not fancy by any means, but the food and crew are good, and the diving is GREAT! And you'll pay about 1/2 or less of what the Aggressor charges.

 

[swisstrav]

i don´t see the advantage of beeing on a liveaboard in lembeh strait. as mentioned obove, most of the dive sites can easely be reached on day trips

my next stay will be at lembeh resort

swisstrav

 

[Bosun]

Thanks for the tips, we will investigate these options.

 

[Indah]

At this moment there are already 6 dive resort in Lembeh Strait and within a couple of months some others will open. They range from backpackers to luxerious standards. And ours for example can offer also real no limit diving with own boat and Nitrox.
See also http://www.starfish.ch or our http://www.diving-on-sulawesi.com

Worst choice in my opinion is to dive with one of the Manado operators which make daytrips to Lembeh. Renting local water taxis and dropping too many guests on one spot. Often accompanied by only one guide who also is not really specialized in Lembeh.

By the way, the North Sulawesi Agressor is a very nice ship indeed.

 

[BernieL59]

Just spent 2 weeks at Lembeh 4 days diving at KBR resort and the next week on the Aggressor. Dive Guides at KBR were much more experienced than aboard the Aggressor in finding the critters however the resort itself was not much to brag about especially the food. The Agresssor did go north out of the Strait but since we did 12 dives already in the Strait we did not feel the additional dives were worth. The boat and Captain Niall did a good job and the boat was pretty decent. The Aggressor has been there less than a year so it will take some time for them to become as experienced as the local Eco Divers. I tend to agree with the other posts that you could probably so just as well at a number of the resorts for less money. I heard the Lembeh Resort on the island is very good. The diving was incredible in terms of life and critters.

 

[DontLieToMe]

I have just spent 30 days in Northern Sulawesi both on liveaboards and land-based. I saw the Aggressor while at Gangga Island. They did two dives on Lihaga Island which is largely a rubble site near Gangga Island. I also saw them diving Sahong. From what I saw and what I was told by local operators the Aggressor does not go any further north than those sites in the Bangka area and do not go to Bunaken. Most of their diving is in the Lembeh Straits. If you want to see the creatures in Lembeh Strait then the guides at KBR and Lembeh Resort are definitely the way to go.

 

[OnTheSpot]

I would concur with what most people think. Lembeh is best dived from a resort. There's also places to stay on Bangka, but the Aggressor covers the whole area so there is some advantage, despite the fact that you're within sight of land most of the time. Some people just love liveaboards!

I used to work in Utila (Honduras) and was amazed when I heard a Utila Aggressor had started operation. The dive sites are all within reach of a half day trip, but again, some people love the liveaboard experience and (like Bangka, I would say), Utila is rather lacking in luxury accommodations, so the Aggressor fills a hole in the market.

Lembeh Resort

North Sulawesi Aggressor

Bangka Dive Resort (Murex)

Lembeh Dive Sites