Live Aboard Indonesian Duyung Baru, SCUBA Dive Adventure May, 2018

We arranged our live aboard dive boat with PADI Travel, the only requirement: small number of divers and Indonesia, which our Dive Bus Instructors in Curacao raved about. 

We always moored in quiet, secluded bays (anchoring causes much more destruction to the ocean bottom).

We were welcomed for a tour of the sparkling engine room.

Our boat, the Duyung Baru was a 80 ft, traditional Phinisi modified and upgraded to a 5 star personalized world class diving.  It has 6 cyclinder Yanmar propulsion engine with four customers, four crew and one dive master.  It is owned and operated by Yani and Vovo.

Pictorial charts of our week in the Pacific Ocean and Flores Sea, Komodo Island and active volcano nearby were everything and more than we anticipated in this Indonesian archipelago.  Komodo National Park is teaming with marine life making it an ideal diving spot.  Special permits are required to ensure that it is not overpopulated with divers.  

Strong currents surge between the islands bringing rich nutrients vital to this marine ecosystem. Currents can be “tricky” so timing out entry and exits are critical.  The best and biggest fish appear with the strongest currents.

This was world class diving, at it’s finest!

Awesome Photos Say It All!  The colours and variety were beyond imagination.  Some are so camouflaged and original in their hunting and defense armour, it blew us away!

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Of course, there were numerous books to identify all we saw, but this one was my favourite.

Avid divers Yuri and Olga live in Australia having immigrated from Ukraine as a young couple.  We were fortunate to be able to share Yuri’s spectacular photos and videos.

We used a 12 ft aluminum skiff for short transfers to dive sites to Komodo National Park.

He would pick us up at the end of our drift dives by sharp lookout.

Comfortable Bunks 

Roomy foredeck to prepare for dives and lounging after.  

Catherine enjoyed her morning coffee watching the sunrise here.  

Nick, our Dive Master, originally from Minnesota, now lives in Bali where his wife is doing her doctorate in plastic pollution.  He was super, giving us thorough briefings with diagrams of each dive site before starting.  

Yuri & Nick at chess at sunset time.

Peter was participating in the wheel house and kitchen.   Great fun! 

Our Captain!

Yani is one fantastic chef!  

 With an impressive galley.  Six gas burners on two stoves, two ovens, three fridges, two chest freezers, huge RO watermaker.  

Reverse Osmosis Watermaker

Air Compressor and Nitrox Gas Mixer

Two diesel generators to support galley: baking breads, pretzels, cakes, coissants, cakes and making own noodles for Indonesian cuisine.

BBQ fish and chicken

 

While Olga just couldn’t get enough sun & sea water, Sunburned Catherine ready for next dive.  We enjoyed 15 dives using Nitrox over 6 days.  Compressor and gas blending on board.  Hyperbaric chamber nearby.

Many Giant Manta with 12-15 ft "wing span".  One group of three hung out at a "cleaning station" while wrasse nibbled at their accumulated daily debris.  We observed for 20 minutes.  Awesome!

We hope that you enjoyed this Virtual SCUBA and Dive Boat Experience during these "No Travel Pandemic Days".  Hopefully climate change will moderate and travel can resume again.  We're happy we did it when we could!

Peter and Catherine presently in Antigua and Barbuda