Biodiversity Super Special – Maumere – Alor – Banda Sea – Raja Ampat (16 days)

Dive Cape Bacatan and Lewaling Bay at the island of Kawula. Three dives along walls and ledges covered in sea fans and soft corals – chance for pygmy seahorse and critters here as well.

Cape Bacatan is a good place to spot whitetips, blacktips and occasionally, grey reef sharks. Also a popular spot for eagle rays and Napoleon wrasse with loads of schooling fish. A great muck night dive will be done in front of a traditional fishing village. Cruise overnight to Alor, 70 nautical miles.

In Wetar you will dive at the small island of Reong and at Cape Nunukae.

Pulau Reong is a small island on the northwest coast of Wetar and separated by a small channel only 700 metres wide. More walls, like many of the dive sites in the Banda Sea, covered in small soft corals but of a great variety of colours, with zillions of triggerfish of every species.

Cape Nunukae, about 6 nautical miles southwest of Pulau Reong, is a large ridge with slopes on both sides, covered with a hard coral reef on the shallow area of the ridge, with soft corals on the slopes in the deeper areas. There can be strong currents at the end of the ridge, where large aggregations of schooling fish can be found. Cruise overnight to the Damar Islands, 150 nautical miles.

Banda Islands for the next 2 days! Walls, swim throughs, sponges and sea fans – good diving and great for wide angle. Several sites have swim throughs large enough for several people to go through at the same time and is especially nice for wide angle shots, as they are covered in soft corals and sponges.

Dive sites in the Banda Islands drop down thousands of metres, offering spectacular walls and stunning reef tops, with visibility usually in the 40-50 metre range.

The sunset dive is at the pier in front of an old colonial hotel! Black sand and volcanic rocks with an unusual amount of large and not shy mandarin fish – also great for critters.

For the second day here, in addition to great diving, you will go on land for an excursion on the island of Banda Neira visiting the local museum, Dutch fort, nutmeg plantation and local market. You will even get to have breakfast at the nutmeg plantation! Cruise overnight to Koon Island, 80 nautical miles.

Pulau Koon is a small island on the southeast of Ceram, half way between Raja Ampat and the Banda Islands. Here you will find walls covered in soft corals and sandy slopes with hard coral bommies. But the most interesting feature of this island is the amount of schooling fish and pelagics, including barracudas, bigeye trevallies, aggregations of red snappers, pompanos, batfish and giant groupers. Cruise overnight to Misool, 100 nautical miles

The next two days will be spent around the island of Misool, Raja Ampat, where there are literally hundreds of dive sites. Misool is a heaven for wide angle photographers. The prettiest soft corals reefs in the world are located in Misool. In addition, there are multiple pinnacles surrounded by masses of schooling fish, barracudas, jacks and snappers.

There will be some excursions with the tenders through some amazing inner lagoons, with fantastic scenery and wildlife sightings. Cruise overnight to the Dampier Strait, 90 nautical miles.

The Dampier Strait is known for a huge variety of diving, from giant mantas to mangroves, beautiful reefs, many pinnacles and sea mounts covered in schooling fish, aggregations of sweetlips, schooling barracudas, bumphead parrotfish, fusiliers and lots of wobbegong sharks. It is also a great location for critters and macro subjects, with several species of pygmy seahorses and a large variety of nudibranchs.

There are also several jetties to do a great night dive, where you can see the Raja epaulette shark, toadfish, frogfish and crocodile fish.

The last two dives of your cruise will be done in the Dampier Strait area. Where big schools of fish and glorious corals are simply amazing! After the second dive Mermaid I must go back to Sorong. The crew will take care of rinsing your equipment and there’s time to pack during this 5-6 hour run.

After breakfast, Mermaid I staff will transfer you to the airport or hotel in Sorong.

This is a sample itinerary and is subject to changes beyond the operator’s control. The exact itinerary, route and amount of dives for your cruise may be adapted to best suit the weather conditions, tides and currents, season and other prevailing events