Dive Crew on board:

Cruise Director: Fin                 Dive Master: Gede                  Dive Master: Komang

                                                                                                Guests on board:

Day 1: 28th July

                The itinerary for this trip was Komodo to Bali in seven days with a mixed group traveling from Canada, the U.S., Germany and Malaysia. During this week the plan was to dive Komodo National Park, East & North Sumbawa and Bali. Our first day started with a cruise west to our check dive destination, Sebayor Kecil. Guests checked their weighting and camera housings while spotting scorpion leaf fish, tiger mantis and anemones with commensal and squat shrimps. Everyone ready to dive the currents tomorrow?

Seen: Scorpion leaf fish, tiger mantis shrimp, squat shrimp, feather star shrimp, nudibranchs & wart slugs, morays, blue spot ribbon tailed rays.

Day 2: 29th July

                By 6.30am the captain had moved the boat to our first site, Shotgun in the Gililawa Laut region. With a falling tide we jumped in to drift through the changing topography of this amazing site. First guests investigated the glassfish pinnacles on the sandy plateau, with some very good photographic results, then watched the schooling snapper and trevallys in the crack, drifted over the fishbowl and blasted through Shotgun. Everyone came out exhilarated and ready for more. The second dive of the day was on Castle Rock in a changing current with all three groups being surrounded by various species of fish. The GTs were out hunting fusiliers with surgeon fish the whitetips cruising around in the chaos. After a calamari and beef lunch we jumped in at Crystal Rock to play around in the saddle between the main pinnacle and the smaller seamount. This pressed most of the schooling sweetlip and humphead snapper to the reef with a few napoleon wrasse chasing each other around. Bigger stuff such as the jacks and reef sharks came through occasionally and a “new to the area” pygmy seahorse was spotted on a sea fan. After a short break it was onto Gililawa Darat for a hike up to the panoramic view point and a stroll along the ridge. Guests were rewarded with an amazing sunset of orange and blue. With no time for rest it was then back on the tenders for the night dive on Spanish Step. Our divers shared the darkness with octopus, Spanish dancer nudibranchs, various shrimp and crustaceans. Some even came across minute reef squid and others a giant cuttlefish.

Seen: Whitetip reef sharks, hawksbill turtles, GTs, napoleon wrasse, schooling fish (midnight snapper, bumphead parrot fish, banner fish, horse-eye jacks, blue-fin trevally), marble grouper, pygmy seahorse, ribbon eel, sea krait, Spanish dancers, emperor shrimp, octopus and various crustaceans.

Day 3: 30th July

                For this day we planned three dives and the Rinca Dragon walk. Our first dive was in the middle of the Linta Strait at Batu Bolong diving with millions of anthias and damsels. There were also napoleon wrasse approaching divers from the blue and large hawksbills were feeding on the reef. The safety stop here is amazing; with the morning sun and thick schools of reef fish it has to be one of the highlights of this site. Then it was off to Makasar Reef for a drift dive, which most people on board described as “flighing lessons”. Unfortunately there were no mantas to be found but we bumped into whitetips, bamboo sharks and plenty of green turtles on the shallow soft coral garden. The activity for the afternoon was a trek on north Rinca at Dragon Bay to see the largest lizards in the world. We walked to the nest area and up to the view point over the mangroves with most of the lizards being found next to the ranger station. At one point in time a few dragons suddenly leapt up and all the photographers got a little scared, which was fun to watch…from a distance. For the third dive we did a sunset/night dive on Wainilu spotting mandarin and picturesque dragonets at the beginning and razor fish, flying gurnards and a painted frogfish during the darker latter stages.

Seen: Napoleon wrasse, hawksbill & green turtles, mapper pufferfish, nudibranchs (nembrotha, leopard, taringa) pleurobranchs, whitetip reef sharks, bamboo sharks, painted frogfish, razor fish, mandarin fish, picturesque dragonets.

Day 4: 31st July

                Back up in the north we had a morning dive on Castle Rock for the sharks, tuna and groupers. Turtles and napoleons were present again along with ribbon eels and scorpion leaf fish. Then it was back to Shotgun which was most of the guest’s favourite dive so far. This time the current was reduced so we had time to meander around the reef and visit all sections of the fishbowl and cracks with schooling fish inside. Large GTs were playing in the surface current while sweetlips and twinspot snapper were at the cleaning stations. As we moved further west along Komodo Island’s north shore we stopped off for a drift dive at Batu Monco. On the wall section many reef fish and a couple of eagle rays floated by and the reef provided crinoid shrimps, a variety of anemone fish and their hosts and a couple of turtles. Our camp for the night was the north bay of Gili Banta so we did a night dive at the Circus. Most guests managed to spot stargazers, snake eels, flathead crocodile fish and demon walkers.

Seen: Whitetip reef sharks, bamboo shark, GTs, napoleon wrasse, eagle rays, hawksbill turtles, marble groupers, schooling fish (banner fish, fusiliers, twinspot & midnight snapper), dogtooth tuna, crocodile fish, zanzibarica shrimp, xeno crab, pygmy seahorses, stargazers, anemone crab, crinoid shrimp, demon walkers, snake eels, flatheads, lionfish.

Day 5: 1st August

                We arrived at Sangeang Island and volcano at 6am and dived Deep Purple on the east coast at 7.30am. The deep topography here shows off completely encrusted walls with corals and plenty of fish life all with a black sand backdrop. The next two dives were on Hot Rock, the “underwater wonderland” of brightly coloured soft corals. Whip corals offered xeno crabs and zanzibarica shrimp from green to orange while the reef had fans with pygmy seahorses and leather corals with black cowries and eggs. In the blue schooling fish such as humphead and twinspot snapper were swirling in the slack while dogtooth tuna passed by. These two dives were rainbow coloured macro heaven all with the added entertainment of the sulphur vents from the still active volcano; some guests even heard her rumble underwater! Then it was off to Bonto Village Reef for a black sand night dive where guests photographed a multitude of different nudibranchs. Bobtail squid were about, a juvenile painted frogfish, an ornate ghost pipe fish was found hiding in hydroids and on the reef various crustaceans were present. This was one amazing night dive that even blew the minds of the DMs.

Seen: Ribbon eels, pygmy seahorse, dogtooth tuna, nudibranchs (chromodoris, nembrotha, flabellina, armina, triton), mantis shrimp, soft coral crabs, common black cowries with eggs, xeno crabs, commensal shrimps, octopi, boxer crabs, Spanish dancer nudibranchs, ornate ghost pipefish, bobtail squid, mating sea hares.

Day 6: 2nd August

                Overnight Ombak Biru traveled twelve hours to the small island of Satonda for a macro dive on Black Magic Rock. Even though the corals here cannot be compared with those in Komodo the small life on the reef is quite amazing. This reef proves to be feeding ground for yellow barred jawfish and a cradle for many juvenile species such angelfish. On the deeper rocks spiny lobsters were found in crevices and ribbon eels twisting and turning from their burrows. Spine cheek anemone fish were happy to pose for photographs (which was great because most are shy) and some guests got to spend some time with a juvenile pinnate spadefish complete with the orange border. Once again it was time to move on, this time for a slightly longer journey to Bali.

Seen: Pygmy seahorses, ribbon eels, juvenile pinnate spadefish, crinoid shrimp, barrel sponge squat lobster, yellow banded jawfish, shrimp gobies, spine cheek anemone fish.

Day 7: 3rd August

                After motoring for twenty two hours to the Lombok Strait we reached Padang Bai for our final two dives of the seven day trip. Mola mola were on the menu so we decided to dive at Gili Mimpang and then Gili Tapekong. Both of these sites attract a lot of life due to the mixture of cold and warm currents. On the first jump we hung out in the depths around cleaning stations waiting and waiting but nothing came out of the blue to be cleaned. On the second dive still no sunfish were seen but a huge array of marine life. Schooling oriental sweetlip and humphead snapper swirled on the corners, baby whitetips nestled under bombies and large dogtooth tuna bolted through sizing our divers up.

Seen: Schooling fish (banner fish, sweetlip, humphead & midnight snapper, surgeon fish), whitetip reef sharks, dogtooth tuna, cuttlefish, nudibranchs, blotched stingray.

Thank you very much to everyone on board this trip. We hope to see you again soon on a Deep South Komodo National Park trip.

The best of luck to one and all!