Nov 20 - Dec 2, 2017 Ambon - Sorong Crossing Trip Report

[Dan]

Summary
This is a chartered liveaboard trip crossing from Ambon to Sorong, passing through Banda and Raja Ampat as shown in Figure 1, below. Unfortunately we had to skip Banda due to bad weather. However, the more days to spend in Raja Ampat was pretty much overcame our disappointment for not being able to see the schooling hammerheads in Banda. Dampier Strait & Cape Kri were amazing too at this time of the year, better than Misool, IMHO. The sites were full of schooling fish, better than I have seen before.

Figure 1: Update Nov 20 - Dec 2, 2017 Ambon-Sorong Crossing Trip

Background
The idea of doing the crossing trip came about 3 years ago when our group DM of a trip to Komodo started to talk about massive schooling of hammerheads that you can see in Banda. That drew my interest. I have never been diving in Ambon too. Raja Ampat is always a sure bet for fantastic diving experience. It would also be nice to charter a whole boat for our dive club, as many of us have never been in Raja Ampat. So, the planning and searching for the right liveaboard began.

About 2 years ago, I went on a 12-day ultimate Raja Ampat trip with La Galigo liveaboard, La Galigo Liveaboard Indonesia | Diving Komodo, Raja Ampat, Wakatobi and had a great time. The cruise director (Nick) and owner (Tom) were willing to work with me on setting up the itinerary for such crossing trip. With helps from some DMs who know Ambon & Banda, we came up with the itinerary as shown in Table 1. That is an updated itinerary from the original one due to the passage to Banda was cancelled.

Table 1: Updated Ambon-Sorong Crossing Trip Itinerary

Ambon
La Galigo crew picked us up at Ambon airport and brought us to the boat in a short 20 minute taxi van ride. We spent 2 days diving around Ambon (Rhino City, Wayami, Laha1, Pintu Kota, Hukurila Cave). We saw typical muck diving fish & critters there (nudibranches, crabs, shrimps, eels, puffers, scrorpionfish, razorfish, lizardfish, cornetfish, flounder, conch, cowfish, bobtail squid, gobies, giant clams, lobsters, rays). We sailed on eastward to Haruku island on Day 2 afternoon to save some sail time towards Nusa Laut. We dove in Batu Kapal and Oma Jetty near Haruku Island that afternoon. A couple highlight diving in Ambon were seeing the seahorse and longnose hawkfish (below).

Passage 1
On Day 3 morning we arrived in Nusa Laut and dove in Ameth Jetty & Ameth. Great visibility and lots of very pristine hard corals in Nusa Laut area, but not much big fish, unfortunately. The local DM got so excited and showed me orangutan crab. LOL.

After lunch and with much of anticipation, we embarked on 18-hour sail on passage 1 to Banda. It’s a cloudy day, but the sea seemed calm and weather forecast showed for fairly good day for sailing. As the afternoon went on to evening the weather grew worsen. Rains began to pour. Wind began to gust. Wave began to pick up. I felt that we were heading to a stormy and rough sea.

The boat began to swing like a pendulum back and forth, occasionally a rogue wave passed over the boat and swung the boat to as much as 2-foot. I decided to hunker down in my cabin in the upper deck and started to secure everything that loosed. After getting tossed from my bed to the cabin floor, I dared not to get out of my cabin and put myself in high probability to be tossed out to sea, no matter how hungry I was by that evening. I was hoping the rest of the people in the boat did the same. At one time I heard the engine stop running and the boat swings were worsen. The ordeal seemed to continue all night.

On Day 4 morning, I was glad to wake up at a calm & sunny day in a trashy and wet cabin floor and bed. Looking through the window, we were seemed to anchor in a sandy coast of a sleepy fishing village. I quickly got up and looked for Tom to get an assessment of what happened last night. He said that the boat lost engine power during the storm. Banda harbor authority (BaSARnas?) radioed the boat to turn around as the weather in Banda was worse at 5m (16’) waves and 25 knot winds. The captain managed to manually stirred the boat toward the closest island of Seram island (ironically the word seram means scary).

After damage assessment, we were glad that everyone was accounted for and no one was injured or lost at sea. We discussed plan B right away. That is we would skip Banda and spend a day in Seram for some exploratory divings, while repairing the engine. The repair work involved getting parts in Ambon by taking one of the skiff on 8-hour roundtrip ride to Ambon.

The Seram sleepy fishing village turn out to be a pretty place for muck diving (Explore 1 & 2). We saw long-arm octopus, frogfish, Ambon scorpionfish, crinoid crab, lobsters. Some highlight of what we saw were bumptail mantis & Postlarval spiny lobster (below).

In the afternoon, engine was repaired and we continued on our 17-hour passage to Koon.

The adventure continue to post 2

 

[Dan]

Passage 2
On Day 5 morning we arrived in Koon and dove in Crazy Fish Soup and Koon Reef. There were typical suspects of fish and critters (scorpionfish, nudibranchs, crabs, eels, lobsters, squids. giant nudis / asteronotus, pygmy seahorses, and crocodilefish), not much big fish. Some highlight of what we saw were hydroid crab and sleeper lobster during a night dive (see pictures, below). After dinner the boat continued to sail on for another 6 hours to Geser, northeast of Seram towards Misool.

On Day 6 morning we arrived in Geser, Seram Laut, on the way to Misool. We dove in new sites (Explore 3 & 4). Nothing much to rave about, just the usual suspect and not much big fish. We decided to continue on to Misool for another 10 hour sail and spent more time in Misool.

Passage 3
On Day 7 morning we arrived in South Misool and dove in Magic Mountain, Boo Window, Nudi Rock, and night dive in Romeo. We began to see more schooling fish and beautiful soft corals. Some of us fortunate enough to see the resident oceanic manta in the manta cleaning station in Magic Mountain. I missed it, but have seen them in the previous 2 trips there, so I wasn’t so disappointed.

On Day 8, our 2nd day in Misool, we dove in 4 Kings, Wedding Cake, Barrcuda Rock and night dive in Pantai Kecil. While in south Misool, we saw typical suspects of fish and critters (black-tip sharks, white-tip shark, walking shark, oceanic manta, batfish, napoleon wrasse, schooling of jackfish, schooling of barracuda, schooling of snappers, butterflyfish, anglefish, groupers, bumphread parrotfish, hawkfish, clown triggerfish, scorpionfish, nudibranchs, crabs, eels, lobsters, squids, pygmy seahorses, and crocodilefish) Some highlight of what we saw were the colorful soft coral, schooling chevron barracuda, and bargibanti pygmy seahorse which happen to look straight at me (see picture, below). After dinner the boat completed the passage 3 by sailing on to northern Missol for 5 hours.

Passage 4
On Day 9 morning we arrived in North Misool. Visibilty were not good (30’ or 10m). We decided to do just 2 morning dives in Farondy Cave and Razor Back and continued to sail on Passage 5 to Fam (15 hours, 80 miles journey). We saw typical suspects of fish and critters (blue-spotted ray, nudibranchs, barramundi, cowrie, anglefish). A highlight on the dives was to see this Mushroom Coral Reticulidia (below).

Passage 5
On Day 10 morning we arrived in Penemu and dove in Harto’s Reef, Keruo Channel, Melisa’s Garden and a night dive in Penemu Jetty. Melisa’s garden with huge field of hard corals are always enjoyable to dive in with lots of schooling fish and occasional sharks and napoleon wrasse passing by.

Some of us were diving in this area in May 2016, as reported here, Pulau Pef - Little Raja Ampat Trip Report. Although we visited at different time of the year this time, we pretty much saw similar fish & critters (anemonefish, nudibranchs, eels, barramundi, anglefish, shrimps, snappers, pygmy seahores, octopus, pipefish, groupers, scorpionfish, batfish, flatworms, sweetlips, wobbegong sharks).One new fish that I saw in this recent trip was the toadfish, below. Also the huge field of hard coral of Melisa’s Garden and the breathtaking top view of the Penemu islands are worth to visit every time we are in Raja Ampat. (see pictures, below).

To be continued to post 3.

 

[Dan]

Breathtaking view of Penemu island, below.

Passage 6
On Day 11 morning we arrived in Mansuar part of Dampier Strait and dove in Yebuba Corner, Sawondarek, Mioskon and Saonek, including a tour of Saonek village. We saw more fish in Dampier Straits than in any earlier trips. Some of the typical suspects of fish and critters were black-tip shark, nudibranchs, schooling of snappers, schooling of jackfish, schooling of barracudas, schooling of fusilier, eels, crocodilefish, grouper, gobies, turtles, barramundi, anglefish, batfish, bumphead parrotfish, sweetlips, peacock mantis, giant clams, octopus, napoleon wrasse, pygmy seahores, octopus, pipefish, groupers, scorpionfish, and wobbegong sharks.

Some highlights of what we saw in Mansuar were school of sweetlips packed like sardine in a can over cabbage coral, 3 giant clams in one bunch, wobbegong shark resting under a table coral, day octopus searching for food on the sand, devil scorpionfish walking on the sand, and pontohi pygmy seahorse hanging on a stringy coral that only a sharp-eye & experienced DM can spot it, as shown below.

To be continued to the next post for the last passage.

 

[Dan]

Passage 7
On Day 12 morning, the last diving day of the trip, we sailed to Cape Kri area and dove in Blue Magic and Cape Kri in the morning. We seemed to hit the right time for seeing schooling fish in this area more than in any earlier trips. So, I had so much fun finning around and copiously snapping pictures of them, enjoying myself, like a kid with new toy on the Christmas Day. We saw schooling of Bigeye, Sweetlips, Squirrelfish, Jackfish, Snappers, as shown below.

One of highlight of what we saw in Kri was the curiousity of mantis shrimp. It was patiently waiting for me to get out of its front door.

Sadly the trip had to end in the afternoon so we could dry up our gear before packing them in the next morning and heading to back to Sorong.

Returning Home
On Day 13 our flight home leaving at noon, so the skiffs took us to the Sorong harbor around 9 am and arranged 3 small taxi vans to take 13 of us back to Sorong airport. Half of the group (7 divers) flew home and the other half (6 divers) spent 3 more days in Bali, before heading home.

 

[guppyman]

Thanks for sharing, Dan. Looks like it was an eventful but fun trip.

Billy

 

[Dan]

Thanks for sharing, Dan. Looks like it was an eventful but fun trip.

Billy

You welcome, Billy.

Gladly to share the experience. Hopefully I’ll be running out of bad luck in my next liveaboard trip & able to see the schooling hammerheads this time in Cocos in September.

A couple things I learnt from this trip:
1. Phinisi boat leaks, better to go during dry season or be prepared to get wet while in the cabin & make sure to keep your electronic away from potential leak. I flooded my laptop while charging in the cabin during heavy rain.
2. If you like to do such crossing trip in faster cruising speed, get metal boat with lots of ponies that can get out of dodge quickly when bad storm coming to you.

 

[AlMitch]

Thanks so much for the in-depth report.

The wooden Phinisi boats will definitely leak more than a steel hull but they shouldn't be flooding your PC in your cabin!! We were on the Indo Siren many moons ago and we went through some pretty rough weather, driving rain and 3m + seas, and there were only a few drops that came through into our cabin.
But I must say the wooden boats have a romantic charm that the steel beasties just don't seem to have.

You were lucky to get out of that storm pretty much unscathed, losing engine power in a storm is pretty serious!!

 

[BDSC]

Dan_T, you are the man when it comes to trip reports!

 

[Dan]

Dan_T, you are the man when it comes to trip reports!

Thanks for “pat-on-the-back”. The pressure is on for the next one: Palau with Palau Aggressor II, which is one of the best liveaboard trip I ever had in my 13 years of recreational diving. So, be on the lookout for that trip report in the next week or so.

 

[acidrush]

Thanks so much for the in-depth report.

The wooden Phinisi boats will definitely leak more than a steel hull but they shouldn't be flooding your PC in your cabin!! We were on the Indo Siren many moons ago and we went through some pretty rough weather, driving rain and 3m + seas, and there were only a few drops that came through into our cabin.
But I must say the wooden boats have a romantic charm that the steel beasties just don't seem to have.

You were lucky to get out of that storm pretty much unscathed, losing engine power in a storm is pretty serious!!

Single engine phinisi boats are romantic until you hit a bad storm! The romance flies out of the window quickly! haha! This is especially so for Banda sea crossing trips.