The Jaya set sail on 22nd of June from Labuan Bajo harbour for another 3 days of fun in the Komodo National Park. Joining us on the boat were Petra, Lisi and Johannes from Austria, Ross from Canada, Michele from Switerland, Marie from Scotland, Joachim from Norway, Simone and Reto from Switerland, Jana from Germany, Maggy from Austria, Sofie from Denmark and Johan from Sweden. On board to show them the delights of the National Park were dive crew Martyn, Jo, Carl, and Massimo. The wonder crew from the Jaya were also on board, of course we could not run a trip without them; Cap Achmad, Suleman, Heri, Marwan, Dullah, Ahmed and Mala.
The trip left in the afternoon and we headed straight over to Sebayor for our check dive. On the way dolphins were spotted – always a good omen at the start of every dive trip. And ther check dive proved to be even more fortuitous; cuttlefish, nudibranchs, schooling fusilier, leaf fish and a young eagle ray playing in the sand without a care for the curious divers. Everyone was happy to say the least and we headed out into the sunset bound for the north of the Komodo National Park.
The next day was a big one – 4 dives were planned for the day – and we started off at the Golden Passage. The drift was strong, vis was good and many beautiful creatures were spotted form blacktips to turtles, eagle rays and giant trevally and a large school of barracuda at the end of the dive. Johaness, Lisi and Ross completed their Adventure Deep dive on this dive too, the first of their Advanced Adventurer course that they would do during their 3 day trip on the Jaya. After this we went to the famous Castle Rock and were greeted with fish soup and amazing vis – rainbow runners schooling around white tips, giant trevallys and dogtooth tuna hunting, all sorts of schooling fish and even a very rare yellow bargabanti seahorse thrown into the mix. Simply amazing for everyone. After that we headed over to Lighthouse and dived the reef there, it’s a great 3rd dive fo the day and we choose to dive the beautiful reef on the lee side as the current was really ripping on the point, as is common around full moon. Before the drop Heri and Marwan spotted a manta on the surface and we all jumped in with the hope of seeing it, but it seems it was just teasing as none of us got a glimpse. However we did see lots of lovely reef creatures, some sharks, lots of turtles, nudibranchs, eels and Lucky Joachim, Simone and Reto saw not only two denise pygmy seahorses, but they also finished their dive with a mother and baby dolphin. After a little chillout, we dived at Karang Bintang for our night dive – Spanish dancers were seen, decorator crabs and twin spot lionfish, but the nmost incredible spot by far with Massimo’s team – Michele, Sofie and Marie – who all saw an incredible thing, a manta at night. This is so rare and we straight away reported the sighting to The Manta Trust as it will be a very interesting piece of data. And as it swam off we can be sure we know the answer to the question, ‘do manta rays sleep’?
The next day started in style with a dive at The Witch’s Hat – a pretty pinnacle just outside of the Cauldron. Again we saw sharks, turtles, GTs, a roughback whip ray and barracudas too. When we’d all surfaced, we headed south to Batu Bolong for our 2nd dive. What a dive! It’s always a tossup for favourite between Castle Rock and the jury was still out, some favouring the northern wonders, others loving the deep water pinnacle in the middle of the ocean. However Batu Bolong put out a normal with fish everywhere, sharks, turtles, napoleons and all the small stuff too. It was hard to know where to look. The final dive of the day was Siaba Kecil which was a drift and a half, a real rollercoaster ride on the site and a lovely quiet end. It was a fun way to end the day. The evening we relaxed, looked at the moon, which was a ‘supermoon’ i.e. the fullest moon of the entire year. We also had a rather large card game with all joining in to a game called Yaniv. It was a good night for all.
The final dive of this trip was scheduled at Karang Makassar aka Manta Point. There was suspense and pressure – everyone really wanted to see mantas and the dive team felt the pressure to deliver. Martyn’s briefing got everyone psyched up even more and we all participated in a group manta prayer led by Martyn to bring us luck. For most groups it came and between 8-22 mantas were spotted on the dive. A great way to end the trip. The guests who were staying for another 3 day headed off to Kanawa for snorkel and beach time and the Jaya headed back to land to say goodbye to everyone else. It was a wonderful trip, with great people and we thank everyone who made it so great.
-Wicked Diving Komodo
1 comment:
I had so much fun on this trip and it was totally wicked!
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