Jesse Cancelmo's charter with Ombak Biru (Komodo Dancer)

In Jesse's own words below: Komodo Dancer from June 9-20, 2004

Here’s a brief report on our recent trip to Komodo Island on the Komodo Dancer. I put the trip together for a group of seven (Gordon Purdy, Ron Holleyhead, Joe Nelms, Van Funchess, David Morris, Joy Morris, and me) and another seven really fun people who booked through the Peter Hughes office joined us on the boat. Komodo diving is mostly small, rare critter diving although we did see manta rays, turtles, Napoleon wrasses, and a fleeting shark or two. We were extremely fortunate to have Graham Abbott on board serving as our creature consultant and extremely talented "finder". The productivity of our sightings with Graham had to have been five times what it would have been without him.

Our cruise began and ended in Bali. The Komodo Dancer is an impressive live-aboard and met the high standards you expect for a Peter Hughes boat. Some on the trip said it was the best they’ve been on. The boat is an all-wooden schooner design and is built for stout. Its sturdy, heavy construction and its stabilizers made it very steady in seas. The cabins were good size and comfy. The crew was among the best, especially the steward, Dewa, and the divemaster, Jan. About 11 of the 14 divers dived on nitrox. The boat has a membrane system. I toured the engine room and compressor rooms and was impressed with the cleanliness and orderliness. All in all, they run a ship shape operation.

Diving is done off of tenders and the "system" getting out and back in worked very well. Some of the dives were drift dives and at some sites the currents were pretty swift. This is generally not a trip for beginner divers. You need intermediate or better dive skills.

Water temperature ranged from 80-83 deg F at the northern sites in the Flores Sea to the mid-70s at the southern sites in the Indian Ocean. The southern sites get cool water upwellings from the deeps of the Indian Ocean, and the vis is lower (30-60 feet) because of the high level of nutrients in the water. But it’s critter heaven in the south! Visibility at some of the northern sites approached 80 feet.

Our "photo etiquette" system worked like a champ for handing off photo ops to each other. The level of cooperation between photographers and videographers was about the best I’ve seen.

After every dive we were handed a dry, warm towel and were offered a back massage. The food was much better than I expected (on my last liveaboard trip to Indonesia we had a choice between curry and curry!). The breakfast menu had a variety of offerings but the hands-down favorite was the French toast and bacon. The hot lunches and three course dinners were tasty. Most night dives were before dinner. That’s especially good if you enjoy a glass of wine with your dinner meal.

Komodo Island is 300 miles east of Bali so we covered some serious nautical miles. We dived along the way and along the way back at northern Sumbawa, which broke the long cruise into two days going and returning. On the morning of day three, we made the "dragon tour" at Komodo Island. As much as you hear about it and see the photos beforehand, it doesn’t diminish the kick you get from seeing the cold-blooded monsters close-up.

Here’s a list of some, but not all of the very cool creatures we saw and photographed:

Saron Shrimp
Ghost pipefish
Cuckatoo waspfish
Bug Bunny nudibranch
Palamano shrimp
Orangatan crab
Cuttlefish
Ribbon eels
Beaked leather jacket (filefish)
Stargazers
Leaf scorpionfish (in pairs)
Mandarin fish
Warty frogfish
Coleman shrimp
Crocodile fish
Fire urchins
Silver Pearlfish (Ass fish)
Nudis out the ass
Shrimp fish
Bobtail shrimp
Mantis shrimp - loads
Common Seahorses
Half-spined seahorse
Pygmy sea horses (two species)
Carrier crabs
Sea snakes
Sweet lips
Torpedo rays
Soft coral crabs
Spanish dancers
Hawksbill turtle
Batfish
Devil scorpionfish
Flying gurards
Hairy squat lobster
Porcelain crab
Jawfish
Harlequin crab
Imperial shrimp
Harlequin shrimp
Manta ray
Hingebeak shrimp
Snake eels
Sea Apples
Mimic octopus (Bali)
Fingered dragonet (Bali)

Sorry, no Rhinopias this time!

Interested? Click here to inquire for more information!

top