highdesert thanks for the interesting and detailed report.
I wonder how these sites compare to the experience on the Komodo Dancer, when it does Alor.
After some serious research here, I chose the Komodo Dancer for a 10 day, 30 dive Alor trip in July 2012. Deciding factors: Gede M. is one of the top DMs I have dove with anywhere in the world; Nitrox + extended bottom times; ability to do lots of diving, including many leisurely night dives; overall relaxation; ability to dive several areas which cannot be accessed except from a liveaboard. 19 of my dives were 68 min or longer.
Have not had time to write a trip report or process photos, so just a fast summary:
While we found many reports prior to our trip touting Alor's excellent visibility, we found it to be similar to other areas of Indonesia.... As to the mix of swimming marine life, we saw a bazillion small reef fish, relatively few "eating fish" (10-14"), a couple dogtooth tunas, couple of Napoleons, one grouper, one turtle, and a handful of morays. A couple of sites featured schools of surgeonfish/unicornfish and fusiliers, but we were expecting to see more sweetlips, jacks, snappers, etc, and didn't.
Most of us saw no pelagics (no tuna, sharks, manta, etc) and no significant schools of medium sized fish (there were a couple smaller schools of red toothed triggers near the reef but not huge) in Alor. There was a distant eagle ray and turtle in Maumere Bay (different island) and one DM saw a dogtooth tuna and a shark, but I can't recall speaking to any guests who saw the last two. Several of the guests were disappointed with the lack of pelagics given the Dancer website's description of Alor. Like highdesert, I found Alor's vis about the same as Komodo, Raja, Nusa Lembongan etc. We made 1 attempt at Kal's Dream but the currents were deemed unmanageable so we moved on. On the whole I found the diving much less fishy than Komodo. I love macro but did miss seeing pelagics and Komodo's masses of fish. There were a couple sites with good anthias (e.g. Red Wall), but not the gazillions of Batu Bolong etc. We had warmer water and very few dives with real current. Very healthy hard coral on reef dives. We never saw another dive group in 10 days.
The muck diving in Alor itself (Kalabahe Bay) was good. We did multiple dives at Mucky Mosque and Mini Wall different times of day and night; when I inquired about other sites I was told they were not as good. Surprisingly Alor is not a great area for nudis (far fewer species than Komodo, Raja, Lembeh, Tulamben etc). But some of our best muck dives were far from where land-based ops could go - Biangabang Bay (fabulous black sand) and West Kahula Island (far from Alor - many rhinopia at Sizzler). Biangabang Bay was amazing -- I would rank it with Komodo's Torpedo Alley based on our experience and other reports -- but it has a sandy bottom and is quite exposed making it difficult for liveaboards to stay there if there is any sort of breeze. We made one dive then the captain said we had to pull anchor. Two Alor trips that summer made zero dives, one trip made two dives in Biangabang. Several of us proposed we be left on the beach with a whack of tanks and picked up the next day.
Loved
Clown Valley - beautiful and very unique site. We dove it twice and I would have dove it again. Other trip highlights include dragon shrimp and gorgeous flasher wrasse (Alor sites) and flaming red snake eels (B Bay). Also outstanding was the evening we spent far from Alor watching the very active Mt. Komba spew molten rocks and sparks and billow smoke. I was lucky to see Arenal spewing a few rocks in Costa Rica but Mt. Komba was exponentially more impressive with its constant thundering, explosions and fireworks. Seeing the Alorese fish traps and fisherman underwater was neat. I found topside Alor and the culture interesting - different from Komodo, Raja and Lembeh. One dive the DM and I surfaced to discover locals had stopped their mopeds on the side of the road to photograph us with their mobile phones. This area does not see as many tourists as Komodo, Raja, etc. The music-culture-ikat trip on Flores at the end of the trip was wonderful. This trip involves a fair amount of steaming from Maumere to Alor and back, which means some lost dive time but also a chance to dive sites only occasionally dove as there are no land ops nearby.
In a stroke of brilliant luck, the inimitable Michael Ishak was cruise directing our trip. He is an astonishing cruise director and videographer with deep knowledge of Indonesia's dive scene and wildlife. I cannot say enough good things about him and his work.
Like the OP, I am glad to have seen Alor but would likely not return. I have made multiple Komodo trips and will continue to return for the magical mix of schooling fish, macro, muck and pelagics. Unless something could be worked out to guarantee several days at Biangabang - then I might reconsider.
The Komodo Dancer remains a lovely boat to dive from, with unusually fast and comfortable tenders, and a massive dive deck and eating area. The bathrooms are also terrific. But it's the dive crew that made this trip as good as it was. N