Raja Ampat Liveaboard - our first trip report!!!

This was the first Raja Ampat Liveaboard of the season for the Jaya and the Wicked team and what a great group we had along to share the experience. From Australia there was Mick and Bron, Juan from China, Graham from England, Erik from the U.S.A, Kristian from Sweden, Laysha from Spain and Dayana our Malaysian neighbour. With the Jaya recently arrived from her incredible expedition from Bira we couldn't wait to get started in one of the most biodiverse marine environments on the planet. Fully stocked and cleared by the harbourmaster we set sail as the sun was beginning to set out of Sorong harbour. The check dive was to be at Pulau Ram. This is just outside Sorong harbour and has a craggy sea mount just 150m from the island. With the sun setting we kitted up and with torches in hand jumped below the waves. What a start to the trip this dive was with a diverse macro extravaganza for all. Robust ghost pipefish, reef stonefish, flasher scorpionfish, starry night octopus, stumpy spined cuttlefish and nudis galore. Just 60 minutes into our diving we had already seen some of the great diversity on offer in the area. After we had showered we sat down for the opening night feast prepared by Ahmad and Asdar our cracking chefs and set sail for the island of Bantanta right in the centre of the Raja Ampat Marine Park.

As the sun rose on the second day Graham and a few others had already been up for a good 20 minutes taking pictures of the morning mist and forest, as the calls from brown and long tail macaque monkeys echoed throughout the bay. A pattern that would become prevalent over the rest of the trip - happy snapping guys. The first dive was at Pulau Yum another macro spot and then Larry's Promise a mixed site just outside of the bay. Both were great with scores of nudibranches, scorpionfish, pipefish, pharoah cuttlefish, turtles, schools of snapper and sweetlips and even two huge black tip reef sharks hunting and the first wobbegong shark of the trip - a truly bizzare and beautiful animal. Next up was the a submerged sea mount/ridge plotted on the map as Karang Bata (Brick Reef). None of the Raja dive books or other sources at our disposal mentioned this site but it looked to have all the characteristics of a great dive. When we jumped we had no idea what to expect but we could not have been more happy. Within 5 minutes a couple of black and white tip reef sharks were spotted followed by a huge oceanic manta ray which burst through the schooling fusiliers and soared right above the heads of Ricky's divers. Apart from this madness an estimated total of 20 shark encounters were recorded as well as large dog tooth tuna patrolling the reef. Not a moment was there without a large potato cod or 5 around us and endless schools of triggerfish, surgeon fish and bannerfish. To top off this excitement the dive was a 1500m drift. For me an absolute highlight of the trip (what a find). To finish the day we travelled furthur west towards Penemu to dive a better known dive spot Melissa's Garden for our sunset dive. An incredibly beautiful coral garden encompasses this site and holds many secrets. We saw another wobbegong shark, pygmy two tone squid, big fin reef squid, scorpionfish, banded boxer shrimp and banded pipefish, godiva nudis, flatworms and anemone hermit crabs. Day 2 successful we moored up at Penemu for another great dinner and some well earned rest.

Day 3 was upon and 3 more dives too. First was Barracuda another large seamount to the north of Penemu full of schooling fish and another wobbegong shark and our first pygmy seahorses - a beautiful pair of H. bargibanti. Next up we returned to Melissa's Garden to see her in full colour and full fishiness. Apart from the hordes of bannerfish, fusiliers and batfish we saw another wobbegong a great site for these carpet sharks a large black tip reef shark, hawksbill turtles, spanish mackerel and fields of garden eels. We then travelled North east back into the Dampier Strait and to a very special spot Manta Sandy one of the specialist manta dives within the park. On arriving the site was busy so we moved a couple of hundred metres away where a current check had revealed several reef manta in the area. We jumped in but our efforts were not rewarded with manta action although the soft and hard coral gardens were fantastic and a flying ray of another kind, a spotted eagle ray, did come and say hello as well as a couple of hawksbill and green turtles. After 30 minutes we decided to surface and try Manta Sandy but again were out of luck, we would have to wait till morning to try again.

After a good nights rest we rose early to try at Manta Sandy again and one of the groups were lucky spending 15 minutes with a large melanistic (all black) reef manta. This seemed unfair and so we decided to try and get everyone to snorkel with the mantas before breakfast and so everyone spent 40 or so minutes snorkelling with 4 seperate reef manta up close, smiles all round.Whilst enjoying a hearty breakfast we travelled east up the Dampier Strait to a site known as Otdima Reef named after its discoverer Otto, an Indonesian pioneer in the area. The name is short for “Otto di mana?” which means “where is Otto?”. Well no suprise he was here with some of the largest sweetlips congregations in the whole park as well as turtles an Raja Ampat walking shark and an incredible corasl garden between 5 and 15m. A short journey south brought us to Sardine Reef one of the premier Dampier Strait dive spots reminiscent of Castle Rock and Crystal Bommie from Komodo we experienced mild current on the face with schools of chevron and pickhandle barracuda, giant trevally hunting the schools of fusilier and surgeon fish, curious batfish, black tip and white tip reef sharks, huge napoleon wrasse and as we rushed along the shallow plateau for our safety stop a school of monsterous bumphead parrotfish. One group saw a group of 5 sharks patrolling together as we ascended in the blue after the dive. With three dives done we felt like we needed good solid ground beneath our feet. So we found a secluded (exclusive) white sand beach on the beautiful island of Friwin. Here we played a bit of extreme frisby and watched a huge pack of tuna eat poor little silversides for an hour or so. The sun was now low over the Halmahera sea and we were getting itchy feet or fins for another dive. The spot is one we found the last year and is called Raja Shark Reef as it's a great place to see the Raja Ampat epaulette walking shark around dusk and at night. Well true to form the an epaulette shark was found as well as huge lobster, cuttlefish, decorator crabs, scorpionfish, hordes of shrimp, nudis and a few blue spotted stingrays hunting. A great end to another great day it was time for a cool beer some good food and bed.

The fifth was the last diving day of the trip and there was some big names on the dive site list. First up Mike's Point named after Max Ahmer's son. Max Ammer is a Dutchman who discovered many of the dive sites in the area whilst looking for World War 2 relics, who decided to stay and set up the first land based dive operations within the park. A small island heavily wooded with eagles sat proudly in the canopy with a large varied dive spot below the surface. Starting from the current side we camped out to see barracuda, bumphead parrot fish schools and napoleon wrasse before drifting with the current along huge cavelike overhands for a couple of hundred metres where massive bumphead parrotfish were waking up for the day and ending in an incredible coral garden full of barracuda, batfish, hawksbill turtles and a black tip reef shark to name a few. Upon surfacing the effect this dive had on everyone was evident and it was an energetic excited team that approached the second dive Cape Kri.

Just of the eastern tip of Kri island this site is known for big fish and big currents and it delivered just that with an easy drift along the reef getting stronger until it was a nail biting ride to the fish infested point. Here there were tens of barracuda, hundreds of big eye trevally, 5 grey reef sharks, several white tip reef sharks as well as a solitary large black tip reef shark that buzzed one group curiously. Even a tiny H. denise pygmy seahorse was uncovered in this dive site that simply had it all. This dive definetely took some endurance to get out of the current and so a nice easy site at Pulau Wai was perfect for the third dive. There is a Razorback war plane wreck here but unfortunately we were unable to locate it. With a nice easy drift along a varied reef and another denise pygmy seahorse, cuttle fish, turtles, morays, lionfish and nudibranchs of all shapes and sizes this didn't seem to dampen anyones spirits. Next it was time to get to solid ground once more and we went to Pulau Wai for the sunset. The island has a small village and is fringed by white sand beaches and a beautiful forest lined with palm trees. One of the fig trees has a strangler palm around it with the skeletons of three blue marlin entwined in its grasp and is said to bring prosperity to the village and longevity to the fresh water spring within the island. After this interesting beach trip we boarded the Jaya again for the final dive at a mangrove lined bay on Bantanta at a muck dive site called Wruwarez Slope. This site starts as a mucky rubble slope and finishes in a quite well established coral reef. Even though Ricky was terrified there might be crocodiles we jumped in to a very safe fish filled dive seeing two wobbegongs, a popcorn squid, several groups of big fin reef squid, a first ever for everyone on board a “Toadfish”, several rare nudis and even a masked waspfish. This was a really good mucky dive to finish and with not a single crocodile seen we jumped back on the Jaya and headed to east Bantanta to moor up for the ready for the last day.

As we woke up on the last day to another great sunrise we had breakfast and set sail on a glassy ocean towards Sorong. With the sails up we slowly ambled along in mild winds and had a chance for a couple of team photos on the boat and to jump in the dingy to get shots of the Jaya from the ocean. With the bags packed the team disembarked at Sorong remembering the great trip we had all shared!

-Wicked Diving Raja Ampat