Chris McM - Bluewater Dive Travel

Chris McM

Chris McM

My Dive Map

Reviews (2)

M/V Mermaid II

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5

Diving Komodo National Park aboard Mermaid II - review

I joined this trip at the last minute when another trip fell through, and was so glad I did. This part of Indonesia offers some of the most varied dive experiences you could ever hope to have in nine days, from stunning encounters with manta rays in strong currents to leisurely fossicks on shallow, brilliantly coloured, sunlit reefs and sand slopes followed by superb night dives, rich with remarkable creatures.

GETTING THERE AND BACK

Mermaid II is based at the main port in southern Bali, so is easily accessed from most parts of the world. You'll need to battle your way through crowded Denpasar Airport and find overnight accommodation at either end of the trip, but there are plenty of cheap and very comfortable hotels to choose from and Bali is famous for its hospitality and tourist activities. The Mermaid II mini bus collects guests from their accommodation and delivers them to the wharf.

THE BOAT

Mermaid II is a nice boat with good dining and recreation spaces. Cabins are on two levels and the upper ones are nice and airy. The lower ones tend to be a little cramped and lack windows or portholes, but the facilities are still fine. We were made very welcome on arrival and given a thorough safety briefing.

THE FOOD

It goes without saying that if you're in Indonesia the food will be fantastic, and of course it is. Three main meals a day, a light breakfast before the first dive, morning and afternoon teas with cakes and fruit whenever there's space for them, as well as refreshments on tap and a full bar service. They cater for special dietary needs and you can chose non-Indonesian options from the varied platters if that's what you prefer.

THE COMPANY

It also goes without saying that if you're in Indonesia the crew will be friendly, polite and hardworking. The Zodiac drivers were some of the best and keenest-eyed I've ever experienced. Even in strong currents they seemed to know exactly where everyone would come up and we rarely had to wait more than a few moments to be helped out of the water. The dive guides and the camera man came from various parts of the world and seemed to enjoy the diving just as much as the guests. At least one of them would stay down for as long as anyone else had air.

THE DIVE ROUTINE

The dive deck is spacious with a dive platform just a few steps below at the rear of the boat. Divers are assisted from the platform into Zodiacs in groups of about six plus a guide, and are able to take off both their weight belt and tank before climbing back into the Zodiac if desired. Everyone is welcomed back onto the dive deck into the embrace of their own pre-warmed towel. This might be the tropics but the water can be cool, so what a difference a warm towel makes, especially after a longish night dive! Another comfort bonus was the massages available on board.

DIVES AND MARINE LIFE

Only 12 hours sailing from the bustle and lushness of Bali and we were among the thinly populated, barren islands of Sumbaya. Spectacular landscapes included many volcanoes standing out against the horizon. The first few days were colourful reef dives with plenty of variety for the photographer and naturalist. Day 3 brought encounters with white tipped sharks, turtles, and lazy schools of sweetlips, then on Day 4 shallow dives in a brisk current above a bare sandy bottom yielded my best manta encounters ever. How do they manage to hover so effortlessly in one place while I am being swept away in the current? Luckily there were enough rocks to hang on to for long enough to take pictures.

On Day 5 we went ashore for Komodo Dragon encounters, which were well up to expectations and definitely a must-do. This was followed by dives around Komodo Island in a completely different and uniquely colourful reef environment, brilliant with anemones, sea cucumber, crinoids, fantastic nudibranchs and even ribbon eels. The return trip was similar to the outward journey but on different sites, and included more fabulous encounters with mantas and more delightful reefs. Then the skipper announced that mola mola (sunfish) had been sighted of the southern tip of Bali, and asked if we wanted to cut short our reef ramble and take a look. The current whipping past Crystal Bay was so strong that it took half an hour for the Zodiacs to make the short crossing from Mermaid II into the shelter of the bay. By then it was pretty obvious that 'hang on tightly to a rock at all times' was very sound advice. We descended into calm water then worked our way carefully along the wall towards the point until we were clinging on in the teeth of the current, peering out into the blue. Some claimed to have glimpsed the mola mola on the first dive, but on the second dive we definitely saw it, moving much faster than I would have expected. When we got back to the big boat our trip leader had just been informed that eight divers were swept away from that spot the previous day and were very fortunate to be hauled out of the water by fishermen 12 hours later, many kilometres away. Luckily we had done as we were told and seen the mola mola without being swept away, truly the icing on our cake after a very special dive trip.

Visited on 07/2012 - Submitted on 02/27/2014
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Rocio Del Mar Liveaboard

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5

ROCIO DEL MAR SOCORRO REIVEW

This was one of my best-ever experiences. If you like big pelagics and zillions of fish just hanging out in the blue, this is the trip for you. While Rocio Del Mar is not a glitzy as some liveaboards I've been on, it's perfectly suited to this type of trip, the crew are delightful, the food fabulous and the diving absolutely stunning.

GETTING THERE AND BACK

My trip was arranged through a dive travel agent, and I flew from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas where I met up with other dive friends. There was a convenient bus service from the airport and we were able to board Rocio Del Mar as soon as we arrived in Cabo, just before it sailed. Although some of our group chose to stay on after our return to port, it was possible to fly out to LA the same afternoon. The crew made us very welcome when we arrived on board and gave us a thorough safety briefing, including instruction in how to use the CB radios that would be attached to each of our BCDs. Soon after we left port it was too rough to do much other than turn up for meals and hope the 36 hour voyage to Soccorro would be over soon. The return trip isn't nearly so rough.

THE BOAT

Rocio Del Mar has four levels, with the kitchen and dining room down in the hull and cabins and recreation space on the upper decks. Unusual, but it makes sense because you spend less time in the dining room than elsewhere and, since the bottom of the boat is the most stable part, plates and glasses are less likely to skid off the table. Cabins have big windows and their own showers and toilets. We were very thankful that there were no top bunks to roll out of.

THE FOOD

The daily fare is three beautifully presented meals with a Mexican influence, morning and afternoon teas with hot bakes, cocktail snacks, wine with dinner, tea, coffee, soft drinks and biscuits always available and conscientious provision for special diets...this part of the trip really was five star plus.

THE COMPANY

Social harmony is pretty important when you spend a week or two in the close confines of a liveaboard, and our party of 19 guests was pretty varied. The crew of Rocio Del Mar are not only utterly charming, they are also very skilful at managing social situations. They ensured that some major differences in attitude and approach were kept well under control and there was nothing more than a bit of mumbling and avoidance when it could have been so much worse.

THE DIVE ROUTINE

The wonderful, kind and helpful crew are used to mature-age customers (who else has the time and money to do liveaboard trips to remote places?) and, while extremely conscious of dive safety, took every opportunity to make things easy. Divers gear up on the dive deck then descend a few steps to a wide dive platform at the rear of the boat. From there they step into Zodiacs, and there are always plenty of crew standing by to grab arms, pass cameras and other gear and even to lift equipment onto backs if necessary. Getting out of the water is just as easy, with the option of removing both weight belt and tank in the water before climbing the ladder into the Zodiac if preferred. We dived in loose groups of about six, each with its own guide. Warm showers and good spots for drying wet suits were available on the dive deck.

DIVES AND MARINE LIFE

Our first dive was on the second morning near the extraordinary, barren volcanic cone of San Benedicto and we did three longish dives a day for the rest of the trip (night diving is not permitted in this part of the world). Apart from a few enormous lobsters and morays, the odd patch of colour on a rock and a few pretty little fish, there wasn't a great deal to see on the reefs and walls. Best to concentrate on the blue and the surface where the real action is. Every day around San Benedicto and Soccorro Islands we saw mantas, hammerheads, white tip, silver tip and Galapagos sharks, huge schools of big and small fish and even dolphins. If we had spent the whole week diving around those islands the trip would have been well worth doing, but bonus calm weather permitted a crossing to magical Roca Partida, surely one of the world's best dive sites. A tiny dot in the middle of nowhere, Roca Partida is a twin-peaked rock about 100 metres long and 40 metres high, gleaming white with guano from many roosting seabirds.

Below the surface you realize it is actually the summit of a giant sea mount that rises steeply from the depths thousands of metres below. Myriads of large and small fish, huge schools of jacks and at least six species of shark circle the rock face, with occasional breeding humpbacks. It is literally a mid-ocean pelagic meeting place. We were blessed with two days of rare calm weather with our own humpback mother and calf frolicking in the glassy sea. We snorkelled with them during our surface intervals and they even buzzed us underwater on some of our dives. Ten dives on this one site were not nearly enough for me, I could have done another 20 amid this endless, mesmerising parade of fabulous marine life. Definitely diving to dream about.

Visited on 01/2013 - Submitted on 02/27/2014
Read all Rocio Del Mar Liveaboard Dive Liveaboard reviews

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