Dive Raja Ampat

Dive Raja AmpatFinally ! After four years of “we’d like to dive Raja Ampat”, we finally went.

The trip was absolutely great. So good, we’d like to go again next CNY.

“Ocean Rover” is already fully booked for Christmas 2015 L. Read all about our trip and you’ll understand why we want to go again, with Ocean Rover.

There are only 40 boats licensed to take divers in Raja Ampat, so no crowds. The only divers we saw underwater were on night dives we did near a resort. Top side we saw other boats sometimes but never saw their divers once underwater J

What we saw ?

All sorts of things of sizes, shapes and colours. tiny Pikachu nudibranchs to BIG Sharks (Reef-, Grey tip, Silver tip-, Wobbegong- and Raja Epaulette sharks), small blue spotted stingrays, to big marble rays, and up to manta rays.

The scenery is great, at times as if you’re in Maldives or Palau. We had a bit of rain on the morning of day 5. Other than that, the days were sunny.

FLIGHTS.

We flew with Garuda Air (30 kg luggage allowance), many options to choose from.

Hong Kong - - -> Jakarta - - -> Makassar (Ujung Pandag) - - -> Sorong. Lay-overs were roughly 2 hrs, 2 hrs and 6 hrs. That last one was tough L.

Coming back we did Sorong- - -> Makassar (Ujung Pandag) - - -> Jakarta - - -> Hong Kong.

All lay-overs about 2 hrs, so very nice.

There’s a direct flight between Jakarta and Sorong. This is with Express Air, 20 kg luggage allowance and not cheap L.

OCEAN ROVER.

The boat is laid-out and set-up pretty nicely. Compared to our experience with other live-aboards (2x Maldives, 1x Bunaken, 2x Philippines), this was definitely the best overall “onboard” experience.

Rooms are clean, spacious and well organized. There are 8 cabins, so a max 16 guests. Enough space to store your gear and hang your clothes. Bathrooms are clean and have really hot water, for those that need it after a dive. Each person has three towels in their room, one on the dive deck and one on the sun deck ! Toothbrush, toothpaste, cotton buds, sanitary bags, shampoo, shower gel and soap are provided.

The lounge area is big with an dinner area and 2 camera / charging stations. Power supply (110 Volt and 220 Volt) are laid out along the whole length of the 2 camera/charging stations, and along 1 length of the lounge. Soft drinks, fruit juice, coffee, tea and water are available both in the Lounge- and on the dive deck. On the dive deck there a “proper” Italian coffee machine w/steamer (for those who appreciate a good cuppa) and an ice-cube machine. A large TV screen is used for the briefings, can be used to watch DVDs and to do slide shows of good photos/videos of the day.. There is a small collection of films available. The music system is nice. There are lots of books to read, books for fish/creature ID to reference, and magazines for some infotainment.

The food is okay, not as good as on the Rags II but a doubt we’ll find another dive- boat providing the kinda meals the Rags II served. Choose how you have your eggs for breakfast, and for lunch + dinner you got the choice of 2 different main dishes. Besides the earlier mentioned free drinks, you can purchase beer, wine, vodka and whiskey. Fresh fruit is available 24/7.

On the sun-deck you’ll find plenty of space to sunbath or chill in the shade and sea breeze. Provisions are made to dry your swim wear. Biscuits, tea, soft drinks, water and an expresso machine keep you well hydrated and fed. Ice cubes a-plenty if you like your drinks even colder.

The dive deck is quite well laid out except for the rinse tanks. However, the crew will deal with that. Once you’ve set-up your gear, your tanks is filled after each dive. You got a numbered spot, storage box, towel and plastic cup (to drink). Three tables are ready to place any camera gear, lights and computers in between dives. The crew will look after it very well, from bringing it onto the 2 dinghies, to rinsing them and drying them (blow gun) before placing them on the table behind your dive gear. You can get showered and dry-off with the towel provided.

They help you in- and out of your gear, hang-up your wetsuit, and lay it out again with your dive gear when it’s time for the next dive. Your camera(s) and/or lights will be ready on the dinghy, if you left them on the tables on the dive deck.

Diving from the dinghies, doing a back-roll, is not to everybody’s liking. It is, however, quick and convenient. Nitrox is available (extra costs) for those who want to dive with nitrox. We either did 4 day-dives, or 3 day-dives and a night-dive. Tanks, 12 ltrs, are filled after each dive, up to 210 bar. If you need a 15 Ltr tank, it can be arranged (with some advanced notice) at around USD 8 per day. Dives are usually 60 – 70 minutes..

There is 1 guide per 4 guests J J J. Both those looking for macro to shoot, and those eager for large pelagic’s action will get plenty of opportunities. There’s enough flexibility and communication to facilitate divers, with enough air, to join another group when a buddy-pair needs to surface earlier J.

On our second day we went to dive a sea mount (west of Penemu), they didn’t dive before. It now will be on their itineraries, for this area, from now on. Yes it was that good. It might be called “Grouper Reef”. There were lots of very BIG groupers, schools of hunting trevallies, barracudas and emperor snappers. To complete the picture, reef grey-tip sharks and reef black-tip sharks. The topography and location “suggests” that way more pelagics can be seen. Best done with rising tide and on nitrox.

Video of the Raja Epaulette Shark. https://youtu.be/9ywhEuaMYcs

Video of Ken's night time encounter with shark ! https://youtu.be/C9Vanpqr5mo

WiFi on the boat is weak. However, if you buy a data-only simcard you’ll be able to get online whenever we’re near a major island. For Indo-Rupiah 75,000 you get a simcard and 1.5 GB data (March 2015 in Sorong). Even cheaper if you buy it at the Jakarta airport.