Komodo Trip December 2012

Ombak Biru or Komodo Dancer Liveaboard

At the beginning of December last year, I went on board of the Komodo Dancer as cruise director. It was a 10 days trip starting in Labuan Bajo, Flores ( the getaway of Komodo National Park ).

Most of the Liveaboards during this time of the year move to Raja Ampat, therefore the months from November through March get wrongly perceived as not being the best time for diving in Komodo.
Yes, the weather might be slightly overcast and occasionally 10-20 min rain showers, but other than that the conditions below the surface are just great.

We have set a great Itinerary including:

• Gili Lawa region in the North
• Lintah Strait in the middle of the Park
• Lan Koi Region ( Manta Alley) and Horse Shoe Bay in the South
• The North of Gili Banta
• The south of Padar Island

Being the right time in terms of sea conditions , I planned to spend at least 3 days in Horse Shoe Bay, where the water was 27-28 degrees Celsius and the visibility was 20-25m opposed to the months of July/August where the water can be cold as 20 Celsius with low visibility.

Frogfish in W Reef

We started the trip in the north and visit the nice dive sites such as  “Cristal Rock”  “Shotgun”  “Golden Passage”.  Then we moved to Gili Banta where, at “Roller Coaster” we had great conditions, with beautiful deep blue water and many fish.

The Night Dive at Circus was very exciting with few Stargazers fish and many other critters.
We then head down south and arrived at Lan Koi, Manta Alley.

During both dives at “Manta Alley” , we had Mantas cruising along the reef and into the blue, however, we could not see them hovering while getting cleaned.

In Horse Shoe Bay, South Rinca, there were no other boats (very common during this time of the year), so we could take the best mooring line just in front of the beach where the wild Komodo Dragons like to hang out.

Horse Shoe Bay is one of my favorite places in Indonesia archipelago. The Steep green mountains, eagles, monkeys, wild boars, deers and  mighty dragons make this place stunning and gives you the feeling of going back in time.

The diving is superb with lots of fish in “Cannibal Rock” & “Rodeo’s Rock”, huge soft corals in “Yellow Wall”, tons of crinoids at “Pelican Head”  an infinity variety of nudibranchs, frogfish, shrimps, crabs and coral fish everywhere.

When the current is moderate and you jump in the right spot in places such as Cannibal or Rodeo, you can witness thousands of fusiliers moving back and forward in ball formation, while huge Giant Trevallys hunt them down.

We have spent 3 days in the bay and repeated few time Cannibal Rock as it was a very nice and rewarding dive.
Of course we did not miss the chance and paid few visit on land to see the Dragons. As usual, they came to give us the welcome as soon as we arrived on the beach. 😉

When we arrived at Padar Island and dived “W Reef” also called “3 Sisters” we had the best conditions with mild current and clear blue water. We could find a huge Giant Frogfish right in the middle of the pinnacle surrounded by nice red soft corals.

The highlight of the trip was on the last day  when we decided to skip the dive at Batu Bolong and instead try our chances and dive at Mawuang Island to see if we could find some Mantas.
As soon as I descended I received the best of welcome as a Dugong came towards me and swam right by . That was a fantastic experience. I have seen Dugong in the past during some special occasions, but never as clear as this time.

The Mermaid!

Mantas were not too far ahead of us circling around in formation, taking their time hovering on top of this rock where many cleaner fish were all of the sudden called to duty.

8 mantas rays in Cleaning Station. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

We slowly approached them and we stopped far enough to do not disturb them, but close enough to admire them in all their elegance and beauty.

We had 3 Black mantas and 5 Commons. We spent the entire dive watching them as they were swimming back and forward passing on top of our head, behind us and in front. There were Mantas all the time everywhere. I thought I already had a great dive down in the South at Manta Alley, but this was by far one of my favorite Manta dive ever. When we got low on air we ended the dive and left the beautiful display by that time has been on for a good hour.

What a way to end our amazing journey around the Komodo which for me is one of the most amazing and complete area for diving in Indonesia. Whether Big or Small marine life , Komodo National Park has got it all with the addition of the Komodo Dragons and other interesting wildlife.

Mantas circling at the cleaning station

Halmahera Trip on Board of the Damai 2 Liveaboard

At the End of April I have been once again Traveling with the Damai 2 Liveaborad. This time we had an exploratory trip around the big island of Halmahera. Halmahera is situated in the indonesia Archipelago. It is one of the main and biggest island together with South Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and West Papua.

The MSY Damai 2 moored near Ternate

The trip Started in the Lembeh Strait in North Sulawesi. Thanks to this I could get the chance to meet and spend some time with some of my old and good friend in the Region. Before going on board I have been at Minahasa Lagoon to visit the property and meet with Jim and Cary (Eco Divers), Jaakko (Living Colors), Danny( Minahasa Lagoon), Andrea (Eco Divers), Monica and Danny  (Tasik DIvers), Nigel and Tina (Two Fish Divers), Christian and Sam ( Scuba zoo). We all had a great time. Having spent 6 years in The Bunaken Marine Park. I really feel manado as a second home.

a very healthy reef in the outer side of Lembeh Island, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

On board of the Damai 2, there was my good friend Mike ( cruise director ) and I could meet with many nice people like Tony and his Wife Bintang ( co-owner Damai ), Mark and Arnaz ( Conservation International ) very friendly Jeff ( share holder Damai ) Monte videographer from the States and Michael a very experience Diver from Germany that , at that time, had dived everywhere in Indonesia, except Halmahera.

During the first diving day, instead of diving the inside the Strait, we have decided to take the boat in the outern part of the island of Lembeh. The diving was not bad at all. We could find some very interesting diving sites with nice pinnacles and soft corals. We have seen a Manta Ray passing by and a white tip reef shark. Outside Lembeh turned out to be a very nice coral option and alternative to the muck sites inside the Strait.
The same night we sailed towards Tifore Island which is located between Sulawesi and Halmahera.

The first morning dive at Tifore was at un underwater sea mont just next to the west side of the island.

It turned out to be an excellent one. We had a huge school of Rainbow runners and Barracudas as well as Black Snappers and Fusiliers, few napoleons were moving around the top reef and the west side had a very good soft coral formation. We did three dives there , but we could see the barracuda only on the first dive. They must have been moving out into the blue. Unfortunately the east side of the Sea mont was totally destroyed by dynamite fishing 😦 .

A small group of barracuda

A big vortex of Barracuda

On Day three we arrived at Ternate the capital of Halmahera.  Ternate has got an amazing Panorama with 4 active volcano visible.
I have made a couple of dives there and seen many Jaw-fish and a school of Bumped head parrotfish passing by. The visibility was very good but the coral was not in good shape at the first dive site. The second dive was by one of the Volcano, a black sand dive site with hundreds of Skeleton shrimps.  In that dive site Mark might has found a new species of walking shark we are still waiting for the results.

A Jaw-fish keeps its mouth wide opened

The next day we arrived at Selat Patientie which is a strait between Halmahera and Bacan island. Along the coast there were some small fishing village , amazingly the forest was still untouched. The landscape in the area was so beautiful.
We dived by Proco island in the south side. This turned out to be the most beautiful reef of the entire itinerary. We had many  pristine coral blocks some with glass fish, many anthers everywhere , also a very good number of ribbon eels a couple of black tip reef sharks a slight current intensifying towards the end at the corner where there were many fish.
We had two dives there and enjoyed both.

Proco Island , near Bacan Island in Halmahera

A pristine top reef in Halmahera

The days went on navigating between wild strait made up of mangroves and tropical pristine corals. To be honest the diving had ups and downs . Some are were really devastated by dynamite fishing and some times I thought that it would have been great to push a button and go back in time before they fish out the place in this way, because I could tell that this whole area must have been amazing.

A beautiful soft coral with many red-tooth trigger fish on the top. The coral could survive the devastation of dynamite fishing.

There was this diving spot on day 6  a huge sea mount rising from 500m vertically to about 5m. It was in the middle of the ocean by itself. It was totally destroyed by bombing but the fish life was still very good, with schools of fusiliers, huge rainbow runners like I have never seen, black snappers and a myriad of red-tooth trigger fish. There were few patches in the east side with some soft coral area , but that was all about it, the top was entirely wiped out. I cannot imaging how many millions of dollars of revenue they could have gained by simply protecting this sea mount and open it to tourism. I felt very sad.

A huge underwater sea mount completely wiped out by dynamite fishing.

The day before last of Diving we arrived at this spot in the northern tip of Kayoa island. There were some and big pinnacle covered in soft corals, starting from 40m rising until 18m, there were few swim through and the fish life was quite good, a gentle current was going with us towards the corner. In the sallow area around 14m I could find a small inlet in the reef where a school snapper was hanging. I decided to go towards it unaware of what it was going to happen. There was raging   current flowing into and upward that in let. I could strongly swimming on one of the side of the inlet. In my left hand I had my DSLR and with the right I was hanging on the side of the reef with even my finger nails. The current was so strong that my reg was vibrating. I took a moment and composed my thinking , definitely giving up was not an option, in fact if I had let go I would have been pushed against the island under an overhang formed by the erosion of the island rocky wall.
so slowly slowly I started kicking and pulling my self towards the corner of this inlet to catch the main current flowing along the reef and so I did, but when I arrived at the corner I have seen Michael coming towards me and as a consequence ready to be trapped like me. Well I wish I could speak underwater, I tried to signal him not to come there but………. next moment he was in a worst mess that I was just few minutes before, because he was on the opposite wall side of this inlet, therefore we would have had to come across to my side to be able to pull him self out. As I mentioned earlier, Michael is a very experience diver and during this event He showed all his skills and experience. Swimming across to my side would not have been possible, even the strongest swimmer would have been swallowed by the island in this occasion, so what Michael did, was to slowly pull himself to the bottom at 22m and make it across reef climbing to the other side. What a though diver and cool thinker !!!!
So it was like this, that Michael and I had our moment of excitement and adrenaline  during this trip 😉

big elephant’s ear sponges of different colors

The Damai vessel as usual turned out to be a very fine service. Great cabins with bathroom, the food was excellent and on the Damai 2 there is even an inside cinema with a very good film collection that we could enjoy in the evening after dinner. The Huge camera room made it very easy and comfortable to prepare and store the camera gears. The crew did a fantastic job and we felt safe at all time. There was not a single dive when we came up that the tender boat was not aware where we were. Excellent job guys! The tenders are some of the finest I have ever been.
The Spa masseuses were very well prepared and professional.  The cabin were done everyday and they even had open bed in the evening.

Even though the diving turned out to be on average below my expectation. I had some very nice dives and especially I had a great trip, visiting a wonderful landscape, passing in narrow and wild strait, resting in beautiful lagoons with virgin islands with white sandy beaches.

one of the Widi Widi Island in Halamhera

Sunset after raining, a beautiful display.

Thanks so much To Alberto and Tony from Dive Damai to have invited my wife and myself to explore Halmahera on board of one of the finest vessel in the Indonesia archipelago.