Raja Ampat Liveaboard - Second Trip Report!

Our Raja Ampat Liveaboard started at the 28th of November. On board we welcomed Jeremy, Mitch and Peikwen from the USA, Junchen and  Ben from Singapore, Todd and Jill from Canada, Amber from Australia and Adam from the UK. Dive crew on this trip consisted of Steve, Ricky and Pit. Of course we couldn’t leave without Ahmed our captain, Ahmad and Asdar our cookies, Suliman our engineer, Rambo and Elias our deck hands. Sailing out of the harbour of Sorong on the 28th of November, taking it nice and easy. We got settled in on our pirate ship S/Y Jaya, set up the equipment and talked about dive safety. With a beautiful sunset we were on our way into the gorgeous Raja Ampat National Park. All ready to dive the next day.

The morning started early with a 4 dive day ahead of us. We woke up around the beautiful islands of Batanta, the smallest of the “Four Kings”. The first 2 dives of the day were two easy ones to get everybody settled in. And both are well known for being awesome critter, otherwise known as ‘ muck’ dives. Both Pulau Yum and Wruwarez slope presented us, amongst other things, with a galore of nudi’s, wart slugs, flatworms, turtles and a robust ghost pipefish. Oh and some other unknown creatures as it happens with muck dives.

After that it was time to do some reef dives. Larry’s Promise indeed was promising. A very nice drift dive from the East to the West of the little island that looks like a pineapple submerged in the water. On this dive some saw a black tip reef shark and the first Wobbegong shark was found! A big pickhandle barracuda was having a clean close to the reef. Beside that it’s full of fish. That means that there’s lots of schools of bannerfish, redtooth triggerfish, fusiliers, angelfish, anthias and damsels.

Oh and of course a beautiful amount of soft and hard corals. The last dive of this day was a sunset / nightdive at Pulau Dayang. A relatively steep slope with beautiful corals, huge lobsters, small crabs, lion fish and of course parrot fish sleeping in the crevices. Normally after this dive it would have been time for dinner but this night we had planned something different first. We went to the ranger station on Pulau Dayang to see the very big coconut crabs on the beach and in the jungle. A beautifully coloured crab that feeds itself on coconuts. Without shoes we felt like true adventurers;-). Not only were the different kinds of crabs very interesting to see, the shallow water close to the beach was full with a very healthy coral reef. In water as little as 1 meter we could see giant clams, flatworms, crabs, soft corals, hard corals and so on. Absolutely amazing!

Day3 of the trip started again fabulous. Pulau Dayang also has a channel and a very nice fast drift through it. In the beginning the reef slope had beautiful sea fans and a steep sloping bottom. Coming towards the corner the current picked up as expected and we were now properly drifting! What a feeling! And what a stunningly beautiful soft coral ledges, mountains and slopes. A good way to wake up!

Pygmy Seahorse

Karang Bata, our second dive, is an underwater mountain ledge about 1 km long. There was nearly no current which made both the top plateau as the deeper edges very easy to dive. I think it took no more than a minute to find the first black tip reef shark cruising by. Followed by many more both white and black tip reef sharks and even a grey reef! Some groups saw a wobbegong, some groups a school of black finned barracuda. And everybody saw a huge variety of soft and hard corals and lots of fish life and that combined with a good 20m visibility, sweet! The 3rd dive we went to Keruo Channel. A “wall” like dive, with lots of sea fans at the start and a stunning shallow coral reef. Another black tip reef shark came to show, a Pygmy Seahorse Denise was found and again a stunning amount of coral and fish life.

The last dive was a sunset dive at Melissa’s Garden.  In the shallows it is is covered in beautiful soft corals. The current made us work, but after finding the shallow most covered side we found lobsters, nudi’s and banded boxer shrimps. Not to forget to mention, at the start of the dive Ricky’s group found a toadfish. After it moved away Steve’s group even saw that it had about 20 little baby toadfish underneath it’s belly. How awesome is that!

Melissa’s garden in the morning was a lot more relaxing. Now the true beauty of the reef came to proof. Reef fish everywhere, lots of brightly colored damsels, fusiliers, another wobbegong shark, black tip reef sharks and another pygmy sea horse. After exploring the Galaxy Reef we took a little tour in the Scotchy to explore the lagoon with the little islands behind the dive site. Amazingly colored, islands with massive coconut trees and sparkling blue water made this a beautiful little exploration. Not to forget to mention the steering art of Dinghy driver Marwan who got us out again as well with some impressive turns and moves. By now it was time to leave the Fam area to head up to the Dampier strait. We jumped in on Manta Sandy, where after a couple of minutes, 3 mantas came to get a clean. One male black morph and two female chevron mantas showed their beautifulness to us.

Arborak was our night dive for diving day 3. Around the jetty especially so much little critters were found that it was unreal. About 30 pipefish together on the sand, beautiful brightly pink and yellow nudibranchs, stunningly pretty flatworm on a squirt, loads of scorpion fish scattered around the bottom, an octopus and the famous walking shark!!!! Raja Ampat has got a good amount of endemic species, meaning that these species are so far only found in this region. According to one of the books there are over 1400 species of reef fish, of which 19 are specific to the waters of Raja Ampat. Beside that more than 550 corals are present, of which 20 are endemic. And we got to see one of the special ones, the epaulette, or walking shark. And it walked!

Diving day 4 had arrived. We started on a crazy current on Mike’s Reef. But as planned, the lee side of the reef gave us enough shelter to have a beautiful first dive of the day. A few black tip reef sharks, turtles and a grey reef shark were spotted amongst the huge sandy area covered with whip corals. Coming up to the shallow areas a big soft coral garden greeted our safety shop. After breakfast we headed to Mioskon reef. A nice drift along a slopey reef. So far, every group had seen a pygmy seahorse and a wobbegong shark, except for Pit’s group, they still had to find a wobbegong….so the pressure was on;-). Schools of reef fish (redtooth triggerfish, five lined snappers, batfish, schooling bannerfish and of course fusiliers) were hunted by little jack fish and visited by numerous Napoleon wrasses. Our useful abundance of pufferfishes (blue and black spotted pufferfish and mapped pufferfish), triggerfishes, scorpionfish and blue spotted sting rays were around as well. Luckily Jeremy managed to not only find a wobbegong but then also was able to find it back again afterwards to show Pit’s groups as well. The pressure was off…..and another wobbegong 5 minutes later was found as well, yay;-). A well deserved lunch was earned this time with special dishes from Amber who cooked together with chef Ahmad! Beside that some very special chocolate from Ben and Junchen for desert, what else could we wish for?!

On the next dive we went back to Mike’s Reef, but this time we dived the other side. It was slack tide, so hardly no current. We could explore the whole reef in any direction wanted. Not only are the ‘usual’ reef fishes around, there is a stunning soft and hard coral garden in the shallows. There’s simply no spot left without anything growing on it. Beside that Mike’s Reef has got a wall / overhang side, which gives the dive site a very special and different scenery than the previous beautiful reef slopes . Lots of nudibranchs, sea fans, turtles, moray eel, black tip reef sharks and another wobbegong! An epically beautiful end of the ‘day dives’. But obviously a last night dive was planned.

For the dive briefing a special person was invited. And with that comes a special outfit. A rain suit and hat to be protected from the sun and the rain made the very funny briefing of Adam complete. Another walking shark was found on ‘Friwinbonda’ besides the critters and wonders of the Raja Ampat night life. That evening it was time for a celebrating beer and whisky, thanks to Peikwen!
The next morning we went for a cheeky early morning snorkel trying to see the bait balls. After breakfast the sails went up and we started sailing back to Sorong.

If you would like to learn more about our Raja ampat trips

It has been an awesome trip, with a lovely bunch of people. We very much hope to see you all again, maybe in Komodo;-)?!

-Wicked Diving Raja Ampat