Trip Report - Tambora liveaboard - Raja Ampat

[needmynitrogenfix]

Just did a trip of a lifetime with the wife in raja ampat and wish it never ended! Here's some info for those interested on (1)Tambora liveaboard, www.tamboradive.com, and (2)diving in raja ampat.

(1) After much research we decided that a liveaboard was the way to go here since raja ampat covers such a big area and we ruled out the cheapo liveaboards where everyone shares a bathroom and you sweat in your bunks. also ruled out the super luxurious insanely epensive options since that sort of thing has no value to us and would probably result in being surrounded by snooty miserable passangers. This left us with a few options and we chose Tambora for the following reasons which made it stand out:

- they reserve the main deck for lounging around and enjoying the ocean breeze and view instead of wasting it for equipment setup area which would be completely useless anyway since the staff always set up your gear and change tanks for you. there is also a top deck and a rear deck(for smoking).

- they use large aluminum tender boats with tank racks to dive from instead of diving from rubber dinghys. this meant that the staff would have our gear set up in the rack for us and we would simply step onto the tender boat with our wetsuit on, take a 2 minute ride to the dive site, strap on our gear and roll backwards into the water. no need to step fully geared from the big boat into the small boat like some of the liveaboards do and which can be dangerous. no need to pile up the gear on te floor of the dinghy and struggle to put it on at the site, worrying about cameras getting crushed. this was spacious and easy!

- the owner and his wife live on board and make sure everything is run smoothly and properly and he seemed very good at choosing the best sites and at the right time. during the 11 night trip we only saw one or two other liveaboards at a few locations and never dived a site at the same time as others with the exception of one dive at 'Manta Sandy'.

- FREE Bintang Beer beer and free soda, tonic, juice, etc.. The only extra you had to pay for was wine, and of course the marine park fee.

---------- Post added March 4th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ----------

oops, posted before finished, so here's the rest.....

some other pleasant surprises about the Tambora were: the small army of staff which catered to us constantly, they gave us a different beverage and dive towel labeled with our names after each dive. dive towels and bathroom towels and bed sheets were changed every few days. plenty of space in room with lots of places to put stuff and even cup holders in the wood shelf above the bed to hold a glass of drinking water at night, hot shower and plenty of port holes. i would recommend one of the two rooms behind the equipment rinse area since they are easier to sccess, more private, and have view out the back and side of the boat!

(2) The Diving....

- best reefs and fish life i have ever seen! some sites so completely covered with different brit colored corals and sponges and fans it looked like a dr. zeuss book! lots of schools of fish and variety of small fishes.

- some big stuff. of course at manta sandy we saw lots of big mantas passing by for an hour and ten minutes straight, but at the other sites the big stuff was mainly a school of baraccudas, shcool of jacks, trevally, turtles, ocassional reef shark, etc.. Themain exception was a dive site called magic mountain where we saw all that stuff plus mantas plus three different tyoes of sharks and lots of 'em plus octopus pluslots more!

- macro....there isn't as much variety of macro as many places in indonesia and philippines but they did have tons of pygmy seahorses, saw dozens, three diff types including the raja ampat pygmy which is very rare at three locations on two dive sites. saw some nudis and strange crabs including orangutan crabs, etc.. The last two dives we did on the black sand bays of bantanta island had tons of critters though including the giant solar powered nudi and lots of other cool macro.

If you just want great macro then there are better places to go, but if you want the best reefs and fish combined with some mantas and other big stuff combined with some macro and lots of pygmy seahorses, then this is the place!

We started off thinking 11 nights might be too long but we were sad when it was over and wished it went on for another month!

Thanks tambora for the great trip and i hope raja ampat stays nice for many more years!

 

[Shasta_man]

Thanks for a review of a boat we don't hear so much about.

I agree that RA is pretty amazing diving, and these long trips on LOBs give so many priceless experiences. Sounds like that boat has a great crew which is essential to a good trip. I think we saw that boat in the Komodo area once.

While the larger metal tenders are superior, my experience has been pretty good with the RIBs too. You don't get on them with your gear on, you get on after the crew loaded the tanks and then gear up on the way to the site. It's getting back on the RIB where the larger tender is better as they tend to have a rigid ladder rather than just hauling your butt over the side like on some RIBs.

<<being surrounded by snooty miserable passangers>> having been on a few, I assure you that's not true. There aren't that many LOBs on the super expensive end, and the people on them aren't all snooty or miserable. Some of those people are right here on SB. Further I can absolutely confirm that the lower cost LOBs have plenty of their own snooty miserable people who maintain that attitude despite a lack of monetary wealth. Usually everybody gets along and only a couple people may stay out of the group, but that's dependent on their social skills or interests. Heck that happens right here on land.

I thought beer with dinner was usually free on all the boats. I'm too tired or busy for any other time.

 

[needmynitrogenfix]

yes, the crew of the Tambora was great and the divemasters were very good at finding stuff. they even knew which two sites to find the raja ampat pygmy seahorse and which fans to look on. i even found two pygmies myself (different types). i think the fact that the owner and sometimes his wife would also dive with us also shows an interest in what is going on with the operation and also puts more confidence in us as far as their ability and interest in choosing appropriate dive sites, etc.
most boats i researched charge for beer but it was nice to have a few free ones after dinner each night before bed. the wife of course had to buy a bottle of wine, haha!
fyi, there was one boat we saw during the trip which seems quite popular and is advertised heavily :ssst: where people were stepping fully geared from the liveaboard to the rib!
anyway, tambora was great and they also have me interested in a future trip around triton bay after hearing what the dm's had to say about the diving there. guess i'll have to save my money!

 

[Shasta_man]

I think my trip would end with a pulled muscle, at least, if I had to get in and out of the boat fully geared up.

The pygmy seahorses are amazing. They aren't trivial to photograph or video as it's hard to find them in the viewfinder even though you are pointed in the right vicinity.

I had some amazing dives in RA as well. Love the night dives because they are always in calmer areas where you can see a whole list of stuff. I'd like to get out to Ambon and that area too. IF you haven't done Komodo, it's pretty darn good there too, with similar diving but fewer islands. Alor is another place as well.

 

[needmynitrogenfix]

i am interested in komodo but know the wife isnt crazy about the currents. ambon i was interested in until i heard there is so much garbage it makes lembeh look pristine. i am interested in critters though so i might try anilao next since it sounds really good for critters, without all the garbage. alor im not familiar with, will have to look that one up! always nice to hear about new dive destinations to put on the list.

 

[Darnold9999]

Thanks for the review, always nice to get reports on different boats.

Surprisingly I found that stepping in the RIB geared up works from a large boat. I also thought that it would be a bad idea and was very concerned at the beginning of the trip when diving from the Siren last year. Found that it was not an issue at all, in fact it has its advantages, and even the smallest of the guests had no issues on the trip I was on. They have it down to a science. The one time I had an issue, slipped just as I was stepping into the RIB, the guides turned what could have been a nasty fall into a non issue. Just as likely to have an issue gearing up in a small boat as stepping into the RIB (the scar on my hand will testify to that possibility). The nice thing is that getting into your gear on the main boat is trivial with the tank at a comfortable height, on a stable platform with all your gear in drawers beside your tank. Was pleasantly surprised.

Anilo was a great place for muck diving. Prefer Lembeh, but will go back to Anilo at some point.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Hmm . . .yes, geared up getting into a RIB is all well and good until a guy slips and pops his package, requiring him to be medically evacuated/repatriated back home, thereby missing the next half of his liveaboard experience which was to be on one of those snotty boats in RA. (At least that's the way it was told to me)

And thanks to needmynitrogenfix for the great report!! You took me right back to the dives. I'm saving my nickels and dimes to get back!

 

[Mossman]

The two boats I've been on in the Galapagos both had us gear up before stepping into the RIB. However, they had us hand over cameras and such first so we'd board empty handed. There would be one crew member on each side making sure we didn't slip. Step on the gunwale while extending your hand for another crewmember to grab, then take the next step into the boat. Occasionally there would be a "hard landing" but falling on a soft rubber boat (or soft fellow divers) isn't usually injurious.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Tell that to the poor man the story related . . .makes me cringe and I'm not even a guy.

 

[Shasta_man]

I fell getting out of the RIB in Fiji with no gear on. I'm still not sure exactly what I did wrong but the swell is pretty high and you have to time stepping onto the boat. I stepped up on the side of the RIB and stepped on the LOB, and in a split second my foot went right out and I landed hard on my left butt cheek on the metal deck. Luckily it was mostly just shock and no actual damage though it felt strong enough to jar my back pretty good. All the swimming makes for a good back so I guess I was good. I also recall that the metal reinforcement inside the RIB could be painful if you ended up right against it while pounding through some big waves. You try to brace yourself and can end up right against it.

BTW, my butt wouldn't call the side of the RIB "soft rubber".

I'd say there are current areas in RA as well, but not so many depending on who you dive with. My Komodo experience was that only about 25% of the dives, say those around Manta Alley, and at Batu Balong, had real current or surge (Manta Alley had big surge, probably 20-30 feet back and forth and was one place where I was concerned about getting pushed too far toward the rocks or reef, and you're just a bug in the ocean. Batu Balong had big current too and you could see it folding all over the surface). Some of those dives were no problem because we dove with the current like at Shotgun but a few others pushed you around. I was with very experienced LOB so we had a good experience. Between Komodo and RA I really learned how to use the terrain underwater to deal with and expect current. Your best friend is still good fitness.