12 Days and 11 Nights Sorong/Bandaneira/Ambon Liveaboard
Day 1 : Arrival at Sorong Airport
Arrival in Sorong by Merpati Airline. Our representative will be waiting outside the arrival hall and ready to escort you the ship for immediate boarding. Cabin allocation and ship orientation will take place before departure. Take this opportunity to familiarize yourselves with the vessel, make yourself comfortable. Dinner will be served while departing towards favorite dive sites
Day 2: Kri Island
Welcome to Kri Island. Kri is a great start for the cruise with the most fish and coral species accounted on a single dive site. A truly dive sites like Cape Kri, of Dr. Allen’s 30-year lifetime record fish count, Mike’s Point, Sardine and Chicken Reef offer an unforgettable diving experience where you could spot huge schools of fish parade by barracuda and pale or blue tail surgeonfish patrol the reef top, while below schools of trevally and fusiliers whiz past and encircle you.
Day 3: Wai Island
The beginning of this dive offered in the calm shores of Wai Island. Dive at WWII American fighter plane that feel in the 1940’s. This wreck is upside down and between 24-34 m deep, pinnacles with clouds of fusiliers & banner fish, more pygmy seahorses, and huge king mackerel patrolling these species rich sites are some of the features you can expect here.
Days Four, Five and Six : Misool Island Group
Welcome to another remote Island group, northeast of Misool, so pristine and untouched. The area offers a mesmerizing underwater scape which boasts walls and pinnacles where not an inch is left uncovered. We dive this day has an unusual high concentration of huge, undisturbed, giant clams still un-discovered !
The Misool Island group sits at the entrance of the Seram Sea, two degrees south of the equator.
The islands, or islets, are uncountable. The larger ones, like Misool itself, have canyons and lagoons speckled with white sand beaches ideal for tender boat rides. One can spend hours exploring and never see the same bay. It really is a place of great beauty both above and below the water. It’s rightly being considered by the Indonesian government for national park status and by the United Nations as a world heritage site. Below the water there are over 1100 species of fish and over 450 different species of corals making the area one of the most diverse marine habitats in the world.
Day 4: Koon Island
At the eastern end of the isle Seram in the Molucca Sea, a reef archipelago flows into the Banda Sea. The formation seems like a channel, which is being passed by every single creature that lives there. Orcas, dolphins, manta rays, sharks, and mobulas are only a few to be named. The visibility might not be too good due to strong currents, that bring Big schools of all kinds of Fish as well can be Orcas, whales and sharks. Depending on the moon phase the strong currents can make this dive a very challenging Dive.
Days 8, 9, 10 : Banda Neira
Banda, has an important place in Indonesian and world history. Dominated by a 2500-foot active volcano, for more than three hundred years these tiny islands were the centre of wealth for the Dutch colonies
The diving is also well-known for its good reef dives on the east and north sides of the islands. Here not only marine life treasures such as pipe fish of all varieties, frog fish of many varieties and color variations, and a plethora of juvenile fish seeking sanctuary in the calm waters, but also the least bashful and largest mandarin fish ever! These colorful gems are out of their hiding places all day and are in such shallow water that they can be seen from the pier.
Banda Sea – north of Gunung Api is a remote archipelagic atoll named Lucipara. These atolls are also surrounded by a seafloor that is 13,000 feet below. Consisting of three large islands and a few tiny reefs that just break the surface the islands offer divers vertical walls and visibility of over 120 feet with very mild currents.
Gunung Api - is a volcano that’s summit breaks the sea’s surface by 800 feet yet which has its base on the seabed some 13,000 feet below. The island created by the volcano is 120 miles from the next nearest landfall and is therefore home to the reef fish that populate its steep drop offs and walls, occasional visiting pelagics, and extraordinarily an uncountable population of Banded and Olive sea snakes. It is truly a unique spot that never ceases to amaze divers.
Day 11 : Nusa Laut
Nusa Laut just east of Ambon was made famous from two of east Indonesia’s famous diving pioneers, Larry Smith and Edi Frommenweiler. Larry had said it was his favourite reef in the entire eastern region of this great archipelago. It is truly a spectacular location and a full days diving will be on offer.
Days 12 : Ambon
Breakfast onboard. After breakfast, prepare for disembarkation. Depart from Ambon to Ujung Pandang. Your diving journey has ended and we shall look forward to welcoming you onboard again.
Dive Site is subject to change due to weather conditions
This is Domestic Airline Ujung Pandang – Sorong daily flight schedule
UPG - SOQ Merpati 09.25 WITA– 12.35 WIT
This is Domestic Airline Ambon – Ujung Pandang daily flight schedule
AMQ – UPG Lion 07.45 WIT – 08.20 WITA
AMQ – UPG Mandala 14.05 WIT – 14.25 WITA
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