The Ocean Rover is a luxury liveaboard vessel designed for comfort and safety as guests explore the Indonesian seas. Launched in December 2000, the vessel boasts a steel hull 100 feet long and 26 feet wide, along with thre Hino diesel engines. Up to 16 guests can be comfortably accommodated onboard.
Dive Overview
Scuba diving in Indonesia is simply a must for any avid diver. Hosting over25% of the worlds fish species, as well as over 72% of the worldwide coral species, Indonesia is often cited as the world's epicenter of biodiversity with the greatest marine life variety ever recorded on earth, alongside the Philippines and a small number of other Coral Triangle destinations.
Diving in Raja Ampat is characterized by its mindblowing diversity, featuring a plethora ofmedium to large size fish, good macro, and great hard and soft coral reefs, along with some muck and mangrove sites. The water temperatures hover at around 89F (31C) year-round--so warm that a wetsuit is hardly needed. The archipelago's topside scenery is also stunning.
You'll find one of the highest numbers of fish species of any place on the planet when diving in Raja Ampat, making it one of our top 5 underwater photography destinations. This area also hosts some of the world's most beautiful coral reefs.
[See: Raja Ampat Travel Guide]
Accommodation Overview
The Ocean Rover can comfortably accommodate up to 16 guests in its 8 cabins. Three of the cabins feature large double beds while the rest contain 2 twin beds. There are also large panoramic windows in all the cabins except two of the forward cabins, which have dual portholes. All the cabins are located on the main and upper decks to ensure no distrubance from noises the engine room. All cabins also come complete with a private en-suite bathroom, individually controlled AC, and lots of storage space.
Dive Information
Raja Ampat Itinerary
Raja Ampat means the Four Kings which were ruling over Waigeo, Salawati, Batanta and Misool.
As Raja Ampat is a Protected Area, since over 16 years, some places explode with dense fish life and amazing soft and hard coral formations. The archipelago includes over 1500 small islands and has an incredible amount of beautiful over and underwater landscapes, awaiting you to explore.
Hundreds of white sandy beaches and beautiful scenic landscapes, are breathtaking also above the water. Almost every day, we offer 3 day dives and one night dive, except for the day of the crossing to the Misool.
- Day 1
- Embarkation in Sorong, West Papua
- The crew will pick you up at the airport or in your hotel in Sorong.
- After the general briefing, we will be cruising towards Kri Island in the Dampier Strait.
- Day 2
- Dampier Strait
- Amazing Divesites like: Blue Magic, Sardines or Cape Kri are awaiting you, with a very vibrant fish life, tasseled wobbegong shark or even the chance of Manta Rays.
- Day 3
- Gam and Penemu
- Amazing softcorals at Citrus Ridge and amazing hardcoral reefs at Penemu and Batu Rufus, where schooling fish and thousands of Anthias dancing above very pristine hard coral formations.
- A sightseeing small hike, to a spectacular viewpoint is on the program for the afternoon.
- The view over turquoise bays and limestone formations is something, out of this world, it is almost too beautiful, to be true.
- Day 4
- Batanta
- Several small bays in the south of Batanta Island offer spectacular muck dives, with chances of very rare and special nudy branches, mantis shrimps, ghostpipe fishes and all kinds of colorful muck creatures.
- Day 5
- North East Misool: Farondi, Balbulol or Daram
- After one night of crossing, to the south eastern part of Misool, has many options of different dive sites. Not only current, also visibility can affect our choice of islands and dive sites. Usually we choose the best options according to possibilities to see mobula rays and clouds of baitfish at some islands. We usually choose the best option. Some of the Misool dive sites were rated amongst top 10, worldwide.
- Day 6
- Fiabacet
- A chain of small Rocks and Islands are well protected by the Misool foundation and an incredible amount of barracudas, Jacks, Napoleon Wrasses, Barramundi and Gray Reef Sharks will surround you during dives at e.g. Tank and Nudy Rock.
- Day 7
- Warakaraket
- Magic Mountain and Boo Windows, offer some of the most incredible dives in the Misool area. The chances are high, to see Oceanic and Reef Mantas at one site together. For the night dive, the chances are very high, to see the small Raja Ampat Epaulete, or Walking Shark.
Halmahera Itinerary
This cruise offers great Biodiversity, starting in the Lembeh Strait, with amazing muck dives, taking the best spots of Halmahera on the way to Misool of southern Raja Ampat.
- Day 1
- Embarkation in Bitung, Lembeh Strait.
- The crew will come and pick you up in your hotel or at the airport in Manado. After a one hour ride to the port of Bitung, you will board the Ocean Rover, in the Lembeh Strait . As soon as everything is set after a briefing, we will offer at least a check dive and a night dive in the famous Lembeh Strait.
- Day 2
- Tifore Island
- A remote Island, with big chances of schooling barracudas, beautiful hard corals, bumphead parrotfish and vibrant reefs.
- Day 3
- Goraici Islands
- Group of small islands and impressive rock formations. Current rich dives, bring massive schooling fishes, like fusiliers, surgeon fishes, and rainbow runners, sharks and with luck some manta rays.
- Day 4
- Kusu & Saleh Islands
- In the Strait between Bacan and Halmahera, are quite current intense, but with the right choice of the divesite, a firework of anthias amongst very healthy coral formations, can be found in this area. Besides clouds of schooling fishes, the encounter of black tip reef sharks, during every dive is very common.
- Day 5
- Kusu & Saleh Islands
- This strait offers diving for two days during our crossing to Raja Ampat. Several smaller islands are building a natural barrier in the strait, with very healthy hard and soft coral formations. The choice of the dive sites is depending a lot on the currents. The local area offers more than 70 different dive sites.
- Day 6
- Pulau Pisang
- On our way to Misool, we will stop for a full day of diving at the Pisang Island. Exposed corners and beautiful reefs, are a guarantee for pelagic fishes, like tuna, makrels and sharks.
- After 3 dives, we will navigate towards the southern side of Misool.
- Day 7
- Pele Misool
- Fascinating dives at Kaleidoscope, Pulau Kecil and Toblerone, are a great start into one of the best diving areas in the world.
- Buzzing reefs and beautiful coral formations are fascinating divers on every dive. The dive site Kaleidoscope is earning the name from a very colorful ridge with dense soft coral growth.
- Day 8
Kalimantan Itinerary
The best of Indonesian Borneo: Sangalaki, Derawan, Maratua, Kakaban.
The 7-Night trip from Berau takes us to the best dive sites of the Indonesian Borneo: some coral reef and atoll islands emerge from the deep Celebes Sea, often swept by strong currents, the reefs are plenty of big fishes on the hunt for reef fishes.
Each island show its own character, Sangalaki is famous for its resident mantas, diving around Derawan with a lot of turtles and every dive will let us spot many of them, Maratua atoll is world-known for the big schools of barracudas and reef sharks and in Kakaban a saltwater lake with plenty of non-stinging jellyfish and in Talisayan we will see the giant of the ocean, the whale shark.
- Day 1
- Embarkation in Tandjoenbatoe, Kalimantan
- The crew will pick you up at the airport in Berau or your hotel.
- After the general briefing, we will be cruising towards Samama, where we will drop the anchore.
- Day 2
- Sangalaki
- 3 day dives a night dive.
- Day 3
- Talisayan
- The encounter with the whale shark, during the day we plan 3 dives and a night dive.
- Day 4
- Kakaban
- 3 day-dives and the magic of snorkeling in the saltwater lake or a night dive.
- Day 5 and Day 6
- Maratua
- The atoll is well-known for its reef, barracudas and big fishes and sharks, well spend two days around the island
- Day 7
- Derawan
- Two dives then heading back to Tandjoenbatoe
- Day 8
- Disembarkation in Tandjoenbatoe
- Depending on your flight departure, our crew will bring you to the airport in Berau.
- This is just a sample itinerary and we keep the right to be flexible. Changes of this itineraries are common and not fixed, according to weather conditions.
