* Middle of the Indonesian archipelago
* 8 degrees south of the equator, 123 degrees east
* 500 nautical miles east of Bali.
For our 11 days “Alor – East of Flores” cruises the Ombak Biru starts and finishes in Maumere, Flores. After arrival in Bali our guests take a short flight to join the vessel at the harbour there. When the cruise finishes we fly from Maumere back to Bali, reversing the outbound route.
11th of July, Wednesday – Embarked Komodo Dancer, Maumere Bay.
17:00hr, depart Maumere to North Kawula Island, Free and Easy.
12th of July, Thursday – North Kahula Island & Mt. Komba Volcano.
08:30hr, arrived at Batjatanwutun Bay, 09:15hr, checkout dive at Batjatan Wall. 11:45hr, 2nd dive at Batjatan Ledge. 14:30hr, depart for Mt. Komba Volcano. 18:00hr, arrived at Komba,
19:00hr, depart for Pantar Strait. We spotted: Bargibanti & Dennise’s Pigmy Seahorse, Ornate Ghost PipeÞsh.
U/W Temperature : High: 28c Low: 28c –
Topside: Mt. Komba Volcanic Eruption.
13th of July, Friday – Pantar Strait & Kalabahe Bay, Alor.
06:00hr, arrived at East Pantar, 07:00hr, 1st of at Red Wall, East Pantar. 11:00hr, 2nd dive at Pak Yan’s Village – North Pura. 14:45hr, 3rd dive at Mucky Mosque, 18:00hr, dusk dive at Mucky Mosque. We spotted: 2 Weedy Rhinopias, Giant Frogfish, Solar Power Nudibranch, Thorny Seahorse, Cuttlefish, Painted Frogfish, Cockatoo WaspFish, Coconut Octopus, Bobtail Squid, Zillions of Anthias, Napoleon Wrasse and many others..
U/W Temperature : High: 28c Low: 28c
14th of July, Saturday – Pantar Strait & Kalabahe Bay, Alor.
07:45hr, 1st dive at Babylon, SouthTernate Island. 11:15hr, 2nd dive at Crocodile Rock, South Buaya Island. 14:30hr, 3rd dive at Mucky Mosque, Kalabahe Bay, Alor. 18:00hr, dusk dive at Mucky Mosque.. We spotted: Blacktip Shark, Seaslugs, Snake Eels, Rhinopias again, painted FrogÞsh, Bobtail Squid, Mantis Shrimp, Thorny Seahorse, CuttleÞsh,
Cockatoo WaspFish, Urchin Crab. U/W Temperature : High: 28c Low: 27c
15th of July, Sunday – Pantar Strait, Pura, East Pantar &Kalabahe Bay, Alor.
07:30hr, 1st dive at Clown Valley, East Pura Island. 10:30hrs, 2nd dive at (Repeat Site) Red Wall, East Pantar Island. 14:30hr, 3rd dive a tMini Wall, Kalabahe Bay. 18:00hr, dusk dive at Mini Wall, Kalabahe Bay.
We spotted: Millions of Anemone & Antias, CuttleÞsh, Electric File Clams, few different species of PipeÞshes, Decorative Crabs, Juvenile BatÞsh, Twin Spot Lion Fish, few different species of Eels, Juvenile Sweetlips & many more..
U/ W Temperature : High: 28c Low: 26c
16th of July, Monday, Pura & South East Pantar.
07:15hr, 1st dive at Crown valley, East Pura, 10:30hr, 2nd dive at Crucifixion Point, South East Pantar. 15:30hr, 3rd dive at Biangabang, South East Pantar. 16:45hr, Return back to Kalabahe Bay due to bad sea condition.We spotted: Millions of Anemone & Antias, Napoleon Wrasses, Dog Tooth Tuna, Oriental Sweetlips, Nudibranchs, Banded Sea Snake, Snake Eel,
U/W Temperature : High: 26c Low: 26c
17th of July, Thursday – North Pura, East Pantar & Kalabahe Bay, Alor.
07:00hr, 1st dive at Pak Yan’s Village , north Pura.
10:00hr, 2nd dive atFrench Window, East Pantar.
14:00hr, 3rd dive at Tree Top, Kalabahe Bay. 18:30hr,
night dive at Mini Wall. We spotted: Bumphead
ParrotÞsh, Disco clam, Dragon Shrimp, lot’s of
Nudibranch, Mantis Shrimp, Banded PipeÞsh,
Juvenile BatÞsh, Juvenile Sweetlips, banded
Shrimp, Octopus, Decorative Crabs, Giant &
Painted FrogÞshes & etc.. U/W Temperature :
High: 28c Low: 28c
18th of July, Friday – Pura, Buaya & Ternate Island, Pantar Strait.
07:30hr, 1st dive at Board Room, North Pura. 10:30hr, 2nd dive at Crocodile Cave, South West of Buaya
Island. 14:30hr, 3rd dive at Babylon, South Ternate Island. 17:30hr, depart for West Kahula Island. We spotted: Flasher Wrasse, Eagle Ray, School of BatÞsh & Black
Snappers, Pigmy Seahorse, Squad Lobster, Green Turtle, Sea Snake, Blue Spotted Ray. U/W Temperature : High: 28c Low:
28c
19th of July, Saturday – Leba Leba Bay, West Kahula Island.
07:30hr, 1st dive at Sizzler 1. 12:00hr, 2nd dive at Sizzler 11. 15:30hr, 3rd dive at Ice House. 18:00hr,
depart for Pulau Babi, Maumere Bay. We spotted: Weedy Rhinopias, Demon Stinger, Blue Ribbon Eel, Nudibranch, FrogÞsh, Mandarin Fish, Crocodile Fish, Leaf Þsh, Green
Morey & many many more.. U/W Temperature : High: 28c Low: 27c
20th of July, Sunday – Maumere Bay
07:30hr, 1st dive at The Crack 1, Pulau Babi. 10:15hr, 2nd dive at Pengabatan. 11:30hr, return to Maumere Port.
14:00hr, a visit to Dokar Ikat Weaving Village. We spotted: Eagle ray, Green Turtle, White Giant FrogÞsh, Commemsal
Shrimp, Bargibanti & Dennise Pigmy Seahorse, PipeÞshes, RazorÞshs, Solar Power Nudi, Blue Spotted Ray everywhere & etc..U/W Temperature : High: 28c Low: 28c
9th of July, Monday
12:00hr, disembark Komodo Dancer, and fly back to Bali.
As a whole, it was a wonderful trip as guests enjoyed the fantastic drift and reef dives in Pura Island, Pantar Straits. We would like to thank Natasha for coming back this year, Brian for booking 2 trips to Komodo with us and Curt, Martine, Louis and Thjis to allow Komodo Dancer the privilege of being your first liveaboard experience. We would also like to thank Jim and Edith for joining this memorable trip.
It is a real pleasure to greet guests from all over, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong and America for this trip. To make it even more special, the owners of Komodo Dancer, Evelyne and Jiat was on board as well! We have a returning guest Natasha Smith whom joined us last year in Komodo and decided to come back for our Alor cruise. It is also exciting to greet 3 generations of family onboard with us, grandmother, mother and 2 boys all the way from Belgium. As the guests are ushered to their designated cabins and settled down, general vessel briefing and dive briefing is done in the comfort of the lounge.
The second day was an excellent day to begin diving, check out dive was done in calm sea conditions and sunny weather in Bacatan, Adonara Island. It is a pleasant surprise that our youngest divers Louis (15) and Thjis (13) are comfortable and confident underwater despite their inexperience. After lunch, we sailed 50NM north to Komba for the volcano sighting and arrived just before sunset and enjoyed show fireworks of nature as we had dinner. From Komba, it is a 12 hour voyage South-East to Alor Arcipelago.
One of the signature sites of Alor, the Red Wall did not disappoint us.
Named Red Wall for the swarming red Anthiass’, the beautiful soft corralled wall is barely visible from 3-8 metres depth due to the thousands of Anthias covering the reef. Guests had an amazing time diving along the wall enjoying the pristine health and condition of the reef.
Mucky Mosque is another hidden treasure where the first impression is nowhere close to what you can find hidden amongst the corral or on the sand. With the plain silky sandy bottom, this muck diving was so productive that most of the guests couldn’t get enough and they were more than happy to join the dusk dive for another round of it. 2 beautiful weedy rhinopias was found perched just barely12metres depth. A fascination point for some of our guests since it is their first time looking at these rare creatures.
On Sunday, we headed over to Clown Valley where a whole different range of anemone species can be found here. Truly a treat for the divers due to the topography, the second surprise comes when the village childrens come out for a swim right above the divers. After that, we headed back to Red Wall for another visit before we leave Pantar.
Our guests are fascinated with the electric file clam found at the Mini Wall. Our photographer guests were also found hanging near surface with their tanks touching surface attempting to take a good shot of two different ghost pipefishes. With the dusk, came the sight of juvenile batfish, moray eels and an array of decorative crabs with adorable soft corrals adorning their shells.
As we headed east to Pura, guests could be seen quietly hovering to catch the sight of the somewhat elusive flasher wrasses in full colour. The Bargibanti pygmy seahorses here was what we jokingly termed as “giant pygmy seahorse” given they were close an inch in size! We couldn’t find an easier pygmy seahorse to shoot.
On the last day, due to the no flight time, guests were taken on a 3 hour cultural village tour where they were given a taste of chewing beetlenut, smoking handrolled cigarettes and locally made palm wine. It was a eye opening experience with dances and showing of the step by step process of weaving the ‘ikat’ cloths.
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“Love the people, the diving, the country. Phenomenal diving, learned so.. Soo..so much. Meeting some of the villagers on landshops was moving. Thank you for the memorable experience.”
Judith Dunstan, Canada
9 July 2012
“Wow!”
Andy Osbourne, Santa Barbara, California
22 MAY 2012
“Great experience. Beautiful reefs + wonderful crew. Thanks guys”
Peter Hanner, Australia
22 May 2102