Review: La Galigo Liveaboard

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What does "should resolve any issues outside of that related to the boat." mean? Weren't all of the issues raised by the cabin mates in the threads here related to the boat? Does he mean issues related to the crew, as was suggested?

I interpret it as, the dry docking & annual maintenance should resolve any boat related problems. He is looking into the issues related to the crew and preparing a reply.

It may take some time to discuss the matter with the crews since the season just ended. Most of them probably went home for the break.

I'm not sure how to handle misbehaving customers after a long 4-dives/day season. I could be exhausted & in short temper and $**t happens in a boat.
 
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I interpret it as, the dry docking & annual maintenance should resolve any boat related problems. He is looking into the issues related to the crew and preparing a reply.

It may take some time to discuss the matter with the crews since the season just ended. Most of them probably went home for the break.
OK - just poorly worded then...
 
I'm not sure how to handle misbehaving customers after a long 4-dives/day season. I could be exhausted & in short temper and $**t happens in a boat.
Curious - I didn't see where the customers were misbehaving in the 2 "bad experience" threads here? What are you referring to?
 
Curious - I didn't see where the customers were misbehaving in the 2 "bad experience" threads here? What are you referring to?

I'd let Tom reply on this part. He received partial response from some of the crews who mentioned about the guest refused to close the porthole windows when asked, he was very rude to crews, went to the engine room and was messing around in there. They have all this on CCTV.
 
I'd let Tom reply on this part. He received partial response from some of the crews who mentioned about the guest refused to close the porthole windows when asked, he was very rude to crews, went to the engine room and was messing around in there. They have all this on CCTV.
OK - if there is another side to these issues, he should get that out for discussion quickly as what was posted here does not look good to potential customers. For example, I'm looking into LOB's for Indonesia and, given the numerous choices available, I'd cross La Galigo off my list for consideration based on what I've read here.
 
So much choice for us out there. Why risk it with a risky op? I have to fly 16 people out there-not to this boat. If that sh1t happened while I was there, I'd have been the rude customer.
 
-Comprehensive update-

Right. Several things have come up in this thread. So I thought I'd post a comprehensive update. First of all, seahorse_1977 was indeed my bunkmate who wrote his own account of the experience. Thats why the issues are similar. The same review from the original post has also been posted on Taucher.net so that's also me.

I did not only post the issues with this boat here, but also notified the owner of these issues. La Galigo has since responded to me. The answer reads like something out of a dream. Not only do they deny that there are any issues at all, but they also chose to resort to ad hominem arguments to discredit us. So I've decided to give you an insight into the complaint process as well.

Below, I posted their response to my review, with the issues discussed in this post. What follows is my answer to them.

---Start of original message---

La Galigo are deeply dismayed that you felt our trip did not meet your expectations, especially in light of the positive feedback we received from the remainder of the guests.

We must confess that we are a little disappointed that you didn’t extend us the courtesy of addressing your complaint before publishing your feelings on public forums.

However, we take your comments very seriously and we thank you for taking the time to share your feelings in a full and frank manner.

I have spoken to the crew and I have someone from the Bali office investigating the points you made.

I will try and respond to each of the points you made in turn.

We recommend our guests arrive the day before departure as flights can often be delayed or canceled by some of the domestic air carriers. Unfortunately on this trip, one of our guests had his flights cancelled and rescheduled to a later arrival time of 9:30am. This delayed the Habour Master inspection to 11am, leaving the crew unable to depart until noon when this was completed.

When circumstances beyond our control occur we have to be able to adapt our schedule accordingly. The crew made the recommendations based on available time and preferential choice of dive site, which the guests voted as the most favorable option.

The unpleasant smell can occur on occasion, if the water lock is broken, this sometimes happens with movement of the boat, I believe that crew rectified this problem immediately. We will review the cabin crew training to ensure such checks are done and the cabins are ready before our guests arrival.

With regard to the cabins and leaking in the restaurant, this is not the standard of service that we want to offer. Although we tried to identify and fix the leak a number of times, we are unable to resolve it at the time of the event. It is something that we will rectify as part of our dry docking refurbishment and maintenance procedure during May 2017.

The crew took measures to prevent the leak as soon as they were aware it would be a problem. They notified us that they had dealt with it, but raised concerns that you had removed the plastic on more than one occasion, which they replaced. The crew noted that the porthole window had been opened in the cabin, which could explain why there was the smell of engine fumes in the cabin. The portholes should remain closed whenever the boat is moving to prevent water entering the cabin, or indeed the possibility of engine fumes. Air flow can be achieved through the use of the climate control in the cabin.

Whilst the owner very much enjoys spending time on the boat and with guests, it would be impossible for him to be present on every trip. When not on board he is based at our Bali office, Indonesia.

We very much pride ourselves in our Indonesian heritage and feel that having a full Indonesian crew on board is an asset that customers have come to know and love.

The crew was notified by guests of drunken behavior coming from your cabin late that night, It was not clear to them in the early hours of the morning why you dragged your bedding out of your cabin and up the stairs into the restaurant. Given the time of night and the impact on the other guests, they felt the best thing would be to let you sleep, and resolve it fully in the morning.

Staff only areas are clearly marked on our boat and are put there for the welfare of all staff and guests, there is absolutely no reason for any guest to let them self into the engine room. Issues relating to the engines should have been raised to the staff. Once our crew was aware of the issue regarding the fumes it was addressed immediately. The engineers have verified what the crew confirmed to you at the time, non of the pipework is damaged and non of the pipes run under the cabin that you were allocated. The Crew did raise concerns with you that if you left the porthole window open whilst the engine was running, it was likely that the smell of fumes would be present in your cabin. They recommended that you close the cabin and use the climate control within the cabin. I think it is important to be clear on this point, there were no dangerous or noxious fumes expelled from either the engine room, engine or pipes.

Once the crew had identified that the fumes were entering your cabin via the porthole and had refixed the leak, they didn’t understand why you continued to sleep in the lounge, as it delayed the breakfast and diving of all guests on the boat.

With regard to dive practices on the boat, the dive guides will always set maximum depths and times as part of their over all dive briefing. As certified divers, guests plan their dive accordingly within their safe limits using their computers and dive within that plan.

Nitrox tanks are blended onboard by trained individuals, each tank is analysed before being presented to our guests. It is the responsibility of each Nitrox certified diver, to verify the fill and adjust their computer/ dive plan accordingly. Any problems with analyzing tanks should be brought to the attention of the Dive crew immediately, in order that they may assist with the analysis and verification process and address any errors.

All our guides are certified divers with experience of diving in all conditions throughout Indonesia, they have thousands of dives and in some cases have been guiding for over 15 years, all are EFR certified.

We pride ourselves in being an Indonesian business, employing only Indonesian crew and the care and service they provide is always exceptional.

We have a program in place for those that are not already Instructor or Dive Master certified, to provide additional training to the minimum certification of Dive Master.

I hope that we have addressed the issues above to your satisfaction. I would like to conclude that all the points you raised regarding the cabins and restaurant will be included as part of our annual refurbishment and maintenance program in May 2017. We will also be reviewing all staff processes and procedures on the boat, to ensure that we continue to provide the level of customer experience La Galigo has become synonymous with.

----end of original message----
 
---start of my answer---

Your reply is quite a read. However I am not lost for words but will instead reply point by point for clarity's sake.

Regarding delayed departure:
Well, if one of your guests is delayed that is beyond your control. I have absolutely no issue with that. Maybe it would have been more elegant to tell the guests that at the time, but this point has become negligible.

Regarding the toilet smell:
The assertion that it was fixed is false. The smell persisted throughout the cruise. We were told that it is simply unfixable while the boat is underway. What was fixed was the broken faucet as I reported earlier.

Regarding water leaks:
The fix your crew employed was duct-taping plastic foil to the cabin. I did not remove that (why would I?). It simply fell off the roof when more water entered the cabin later that night.
I have to add that there was already quite some plastic foil stapled to the roof when I checked into the cabin.

Regarding fumes in the cabin:
Instead of engaging you on this level of personal insult and allegation of drunken behaviour I will give a more detailed account of the events.
On the night in question my roommate and I each drank 3 of the 0,33l beer cans you sell on the top deck. Then we tip-toed into bed, knowing full well that the rest of the boat was already asleep. The portholes were closed at this point as advised by the staff.
That night we woke up at 3:30 am to the water leak and diesel fume in the cabin. We then dragged our Matress into the mess hall and continued to sleep there. Do you honestly think we gained drunken entertainment from waking up to a potentially life-threatening situation?
The next morning, there was no altercation with your staff. They were simply confused. That is understandable, put in their position i would be a bit bewildered as well.
That day, we had a polite and rational conversation with nico and fendy. We explained to them the presence of diesel fume in our cabin. We explained our suspicion of a possible gas leak through which this fume entered our cabin. We explained the risks associated with carbon monoxide contained in diesel exhaust gas, and the concomitant risk of accumulation of CO gas in a closed space. They were understanding and apologised.

However they took no action at all and didn't offer us any kind of alternative. So we conducted a little experiment:
With portholes and cabin door closed, the diesel smell grew steadily.
With portholes closed and door open, the diesel smell grew slowly.
With portholes open and door open, the diesel smell almost vanished.
In all three setups we set the air conditioning to fan mode (no cooling) for enhanced air circulation.
We hence concluded that the diesel fume wasn't entering through the portholes, but from somewhere else. The best-fitting hypothesis remains a gas leak, that allowed exhaust fumes to enter through the cabin walls. In the course of our examinations, we wanted to see in what state of repair the engine was. I don't know a lot about engineering, but the abundance of duct tape on pipe work is never comforting.
All of this was explained to your staff, which again saw no reason to do anything about it.
The next night, we again slept in the mess hall, because of the strong smell of fumes already present in our cabin in the evening. The rude awakening by your staff and the altercation followed the next morning, after they were thoroughly informed of the issues at hand.

Your assertion that there were no noxious fumes in the cabin is outright false. We both smelled them on multiple occasions. Why else would I raise this issue if I didn't clearly notice it?
Furthermore, I remain doubtful of the assertion that your crew was able to check all the pipe work for leaks. It was partially occluded by walls of the boat and at no point did I see anyone with gas detection equipment checking the boat. The technical equipment to ensure that there are no gas leaks is maybe bit to specific to just have lying around in your dive vessel. A visual inspection is insufficient to exclude the possibility of gas leaks.
How the fumes entered the cabin is beyond me, as I don't know the schematics of your vessel. I can only tell you that they were there and didn't enter through opened portholes.

Regarding crew heritage and certification:
Your message reads as if I took issue with the heritage of your crew. That is not the case. We're in Indonesia, the crew is Indonesian. There is nothing surprising or questionable about that at all.
The issue I take is with your false advertising of their qualification level. You advertised "Dive master services" and that was not delivered. Going diving often does mean that one can be prepared for the diving-specific medical issues that can arise.

Regarding nitrox blending.
The fact that the tanks were blended by trained individuals doesn't change the fact that they didn't meet specifications. Your crew was alerted to it every time. However, the gas blending remained as erratic as I described earlier throughout the cruise. When a tank was refused by a guest, your crew changed it. That was all.

You have not addressed the key issues I raised, but chose to simply deny them. Moreover you resorted to accusing us of misconduct to deflect from the issues I raised herein. That behaviour is highly questionable in my mind.

Furthermore, I have no concern for your dismay at the public nature of this discussion. My restraint to polite private discourse ends, where your willingness to negligently endanger guests begins

----end of my answer----

Hm, do i need to comment that further? I'm leaning toward no. Burning you have any questions, feel free to ask.
 
You're lucky you woke up for that scene. Carbon monoxide was certainly in play with the exhaust fumes & headaches, but orderless itself, and in too many cases victims don't wake up - ever. I wear a lowcost Sensorcon clipped to my shorts/pants pocket almost everywhere as I don't trust the rest of the world with regard to pollution, and I don't mind looking like a geek - especially on dive trips, and I certainly always have one present when I sleep, anywhere.

It would have been interesting to test the tanks on that boat for CO, possibly occurring with intake of exhaust fumes and/or produced by the onboard compressor. From your description, I'd expect the worst in every aspect on that boat. I'm glad everyone survived and hope you can get your money back.

Thanks for the Sensorcon link. I went ahead & bought Inspector: Industrial Pro Carbon Monoxide Detector, Pump Kit and Storage Case (CO PRO Kit) - 1+. I figured it is small enough to put it in my dive gear bag. I'll snoop all of the cabins for CO level when I get there in November during the voyage. Well, for any places, rental cars, hotel rooms that I may be in it for days / weeks. :)
 
I dont have a dog in this fight...but just so people know for future reference. One of the guests said some of the Indonesian crew refused to give their full names...and that may be true, but MANY Indonesians only have one name. There is nothing shady about that so if in the future all you get is one name, they ain't lying.
 

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