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Comments
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This was a Light&Motion videography trip organized by Dan Baldocchi and
Michael Topolovac. The itinerary was really ideal: 11 nights from Bima to
Komodo. We flew in and out of Bima and got to explore a lot of the Komodo
area with minimal crossings and wasted time.
Dan and Michael were fantastic group leaders. We had video related
lectures on several days, and critique sessions in the evenings. They also
let us use their FX1 and D200 rigs when they were available and some of us
are now spoiled for life.
The Cheng Ho is the newest addition to Kararu's fleet and is big beautiful
wooden sail ship (although the sails only come out for photo ops). The
cabins are quite large by liveaboard standards and get cleaned twice
daily. Each has its own A/C unit with remote control. There is a ton of
room on the boat for lounging around with a book or working on a tan. A
few nice touches included an on board masseuse, laundry service, and
nightly turn down service.
The daily routine was well thought out. It started at around 6:30am with a
cold breakfast that included fresh fruit, juices, cereal, croissants, etc.
The first dive was at 8am and was followed by a warm breakfast. The
selections were from a fixed menu that included things like pancakes,
eggs, noodles, and porridge. After the second dive at 11am, a lunch buffet
was always ready. Then came the third dive at 3pm, with a sweet or savory
snack afterwards.
Night dives were not to be missed on this trip. Luckily they were at
6:30pm, instead of after dinner, so you didn't have to worry about being
too tired or hammered to participate. That left dinner at around 8pm,
which worked out quite well.
The food was outstanding. Chef Steve had themes for every lunch and
dinner, alternating between Eastern and Western cuisine. His creations
were truly marvelous. Even the afternoon snacks and soups were delightful,
and during the main meals, there were always several dishes to choose from.
Dinner was served outside on the top deck when the weather cooperated.
There was an honor system sheet for the adequate selection of wine, beer,
and liquor.
The diving is done from two tenders that get boarded via wooden steps on
the side of the ship. The steps were a little wobbly and some divers chose
to have the crew load their tanks onto the tenders. Most divers geared up
before boarding. By default, the crew also loads the photo/video gear into
the assigned tenders. Everybody was diving Nitrox and fills were pretty
consistent at 3000PSI and 32-33EAN.
Before many of the dives, a current check was done to see which site was
the most diveable. The briefings were fairly detailed and included a
hand-drawn map of the site. The divemasters (Gusti, Kerri, Hergen, and
Sam) were all excellent. They took turns showing us the incredible
critters in the area that would be otherwise impossible to spot. Hergen
and Kerri were also the cruise directors. I can't imagine a better pair in
charge of our enjoyment and well being. They were constantly making sure
that everybody was happy, that any issues with cabins were quickly
resolved, etc.
The sites fell into two broad categories: Muck (with spectacular critters)
and current (with abundant fish life, colorful coral, and good visibility).
We also had one amazing giant manta dive. On the critter side of things, we
saw several types of pipefish, cuttlefish, lionfish, scorpionfish,
frogfish, stonefish, octopi, eels, all kinds of nudibranchs, flat worms,
crab, shrimp, and a few stargazers and pygmy seahorses. On the night
dives, it seemed like there was an interesting critter every few inches.
On the current dives, we saw schools of jacks, sweet lips, rainbow
runners, sweepers, anthias, etc. Lots of white tip sharks on one of the
dives, turtles on another, giant mantas on yet another dive. The coral was
abundant, colorful, and healthy on many of the current dives.
In the middle of all the diving, we went ashore a few times in search of
the cute and cuddly Komodo dragon. On Komodo island itself we only saw a
baby one in a tree. On Rinca, on the other hand, we ran into at least a
half a dozen grown-ups (a few at the ranger station; a few on the side of
the hiking trail), as well as a water buffalo, monkeys, wild pigs, and
deer.
While all of this was going on, Steve Fish, the boat's resident
videographer, was busy shooting footage of us with his FX1. At the end of
the trip, we watched what he had put together. He doesn't use any stock
footage (and doesn't have to in this area since it's so rich with life).
Most (if not all) of the divers bought his DVD. It was so much better than
our own amateur footage :-).
Also at the end of the trip, we all got a print out with a list of all the
islands and dive sites we visited, along with the dates. That made it easy
to fill any gaps in the log books. The page also included all our e-mail
addresses so we could stay in touch after the trip. Nice touch.
The crew took care of getting us to the airport, checking us in, paying
for excess baggage fees (there's a limit to what they'll cover but we
didn't exceed it by enough to matter), and making sure we got off to Bali
safely. The Indonesian bureaucracy is gargantuan and the crew did
everything they could to insulate us from it.
The only negatives I can think of were fairly minor: the noise level
during the crossings (bring ear plugs; it's a wooden ship and it makes
noise when it's motoring), and the lack of a light above the sink in the
cabins.
I can't recommend this outfit enough. I'm definitely looking forward to my
next trip with these guys!
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