Raja Ampat Dec 2023 trip report

[JonnieB]

Thank you for an informative post; it only reinforces my dislike of LOBs and thoughts on diving Raja Ampat. If you ever get out this way again, seriously consider resort diving from Bali or Bunaken/Lembeh (Manado) for value and ease of travel. A week or two of diving Nusa Penida/Lembongan, Amed, and Tulamben is eighty percent of what you'll see in faraway places like RA, Alor, and Helmahera at half the cost (and little to no current, except for Nusa/Lembongan).

 

[Joneill]

Thank you for an informative post; it only reinforces my dislike of LOBs and thoughts on diving Raja Ampat. If you ever get out this way again, seriously consider resort diving from Bali or Bunaken/Lembeh (Manado) for value and ease of travel. A week or two of diving Nusa Penida/Lembongan, Amed, and Tulamben is eighty percent of what you'll see in faraway places like RA, Alor, and Helmahera at half the cost (and little to no current, except for Nusa/Lembongan).

LOB’s are not all at the same level - I absolutely loved my experience on Blue Manta last year. So much that I’m going to Misool/Fak Fak/Triton Bay on White Manta next January. I’m also planning some land-based afterwards, but the LOB is a very different experience and can cover a much larger area with less hassle. I see them as complimentary and not adversarial ways to experience a destination.

With respect to currents, I’ll admit that they could be a bit disconcerting at first but you quickly learn how to deal with them and then it’s not a problem. You just need to dive them at the right phase and use the proper techniques. Currents do bring in sea life/quantity of sea life that you just won’t normally see otherwise.

 

[Dan]

Nope. If you understand the dive industry in this part of the world and the foreign dive pros who hang out here for a year or three at most... My statement is 99.9% fair. I will die on that hill; metaphorically of course.

I won't apologize in saying if you spend a gazillion dollars to get to his part of the world and your guide is from Liverpool, the suburbs of Paris, Florida, Perth, Durbin, etc... you are being sold short.

Please note I did not say instructor as there are many solid dive instructors here. I cannot stress enough, with the VERY rare exception, you want a local dive guide.

Well, I have been lucky with bule Cruise Directors / guides in Raja Ampat, namely Igoi from Blue Manta & Urik from Mermaid 2. Unfortunately Igoi left the boat & replaced by Cedric who was there before Igoi. So, I’m looking forward to meet Cedric next month.

 

[rayaa3]

1. I LOVE your Jakarta post. You and your wife are awesome.

2. I knew from the moment you mentioned bule dive guides that things would go south.

3. Feel free to name

item #1 - My wife is awesome...I just married well. However thank you.
item #2 - Honestly if someone's been diving an area long enough it probably doesn't matter where they were born. This person had a lot of dive experience, just very little on these sites. He was a great cruise director, just didn't enjoy diving with him.
item #3 - yeah, I saw a few people to ask me to name the boat. Here is my hesitation:

That boat had a great crew, Captain, first mate, the guys filling our tank and running the dive deck, the chef, and chef's assistant. They were phenomenal. By naming the boat publicly I risk the great crew members ability to make a living too. It's really hard to consider doing that.

I absolutely will never book a LOB again without asking: who guides the dives? how long have they been with you, on that itinerary? It's still no guarantee they will be on the boat when I get there. I have to book a trip like this almost a year out, so at some point you can't eliminate all risk of disappointment. However if I ask the question and I don't like the answer, I'll find another boat.

On the other hand if you are looking at booking right now, and want to ask me individually I'll tell you, and I'll ask that you also not publicly dox the boat.

 

[JustinJRL]

Your experiences are certainly interesting, but I am especially surprised by the ripping currents you experienced. I did a few days of land based in Raja, followed by what sounds like a similar LOB itinerary to yours (did you get to snorkel with all the blacktips in wayag?)

Our livaboard was quite conservative with diving - we rarely experienced more than a moderate current, so I'm wondering if this is down to the operation or not. We did all the main "north raja" sites from cape kri to aborek to citris ridge and I can say only the first dive (mioskon) was much of a challenge (I only had about 40 dives at the time). I repeated several sites with land based operator and had a ripping current at manta sandy and cape kri so I think a lot of it is down to tides and time of day.

 

[rayaa3]

Yes. That sounds like a pretty similar itinerary. We also did the blacktip beach.

I would say within our boat the current you experienced also had to do with who took you out. The elder gent who my wife finished her week with seemed quite skilled at turning and avoiding fighting it. Though there were a few places that simply wasn't possible. My guide was keen to go down on the split and hang for a several minutes around 100ft looking into the blue for something big. That was...ok....then we would spend the dive following him at times in amazement of what he would turn into.

Anyway. I don't know if I mentioned we were there for the new moon and tide and time of day certainly could factor.

 

[also_anon_dc]

Did you mention to your dive guide that you weren't enjoying the dives and wanted there to be less fighting the current? If yes, how did that conversation go? If not, why not?

 

[Grm]

Lovely write up and I too enjoyed a couple of days looking round Jakarta on my way to RA. I often have similar concerns on Liveaboards and will try and go land based if that option is available as I feel there is much more flexibility.
I did that part of RA from land and completely understand the currents you experienced, we often looked at some of those dives and turned them down and dived another site and returned if / when the current had dropped.(something Liveaboards on a strict itinerary can’t really do)
I would return in a heartbeat but Malpelo beckons again, I still highly rate this area and believe it has one of the heaviest densities of fish I have ever had the pleasure of diving

 

[rayaa3]

Did you mention to your dive guide that you weren't enjoying the dives and wanted there to be less fighting the current? If yes, how did that conversation go? If not, why not?

Yes.. around day full dive day 3 (day 1 was only a day check and night check dive, day 2 was a full day of diving)

It went ok in the moment. Without getting into every sentence I felt heard and understood. The impact as it turns out was really only on the briefing. He would discuss the dive site with all guests, and when we broke into groups he would talk to us about it. Do you guys want to do this or that? I never really felt like his style of approaching the site changed. It wasn't until the end of the week I had enough conversations to realize he had only been in indo for 6 months, and 5 of them had been on this boat in Komodo. Two things: some people only know how to dive their style of diving, and even if you want to dive differently - if you don't know the sites well enough I'm not sure you can. That was day 3, on Day 6 he gave a briefing and my wife told me "That's it. I'm not going on that dive with him. I just can't trust that he isn't going to drag us through the current again." I suggested to her we see if the older local DM would take her, his group had lost a diver due to ear problems so theoretically his group was light. He said it would be fine and I told our guide that's how she was going. He was visibly...confused by her decision, or perhaps disapproving of it. I told him "She's going with so and so, they aren't diving the split" I recall his closing comment on it as we watched so and so back roll in "looks like they are diving the split" So I dove with him, she dove with "so and so" (I'm really leaving names out of this). At the end of that dive they 10 minutes more bottom time, worked less, saw more stuff. So I finished the day diving with so and so and her. Unfortunately that was it for me, my own ear infection was starting to flare up by then.

sidenote: I've never seen that many people run into ear problems...no idea what the magic is in RA, but half the boat was fighting with their ears at some point.

 

[also_anon_dc]

At the end of that dive they 10 minutes more bottom time, worked less, saw more stuff. So I finished the day diving with so and so and her.

That is frustating. I has a similar guide on my recent liveaboard in Indo (in Banda Sea not RA). He always seemed to be diving into the current. On our second dive like that I tapped on the shoulder and gestured something equivalent to WTF and gestured I wanted to drift with the current and that seemed to the do the trick. On the surface we got on the same page that I didn't want to do long dives if it meant just swimming into the current the whole time.