Mermaid II Liveaboard
Duration
9-15 Nights
Location/Type
Indonesia Liveaboard
Cabins
10 Cabins
Departure
Sorong & Maumere
ABOUT THE LIVEABOARD
M/V Mermaid II is a 33 meter, twin engine steel motor yacht. One of the most comfortable dive boats in Asia, she easily accommodates 18 guests in 8 deluxe cabins and 2 guests in a lower deck budget cabin. All deluxe cabins are located on the main deck and offer a choice of either double bed only or twin bed configuration. Each deluxe cabin offers large panoramic sea view windows. individually controlled air conditioning and ensuite bathrooms. Below deck the budget cabins have twin bunks, vanity sink, air conditioning and share a bathroom with one other cabin via adjoining doors.
There is a wide stern dive platform with two exit ladders and fresh warm water showers. The dive deck is huge with plenty of room to gear up, individual boxes for your dive gear, camera tables and loads of rinse tanks. Enjoy fresh fluffy towels after each dive and hot chocolate after your night dives!
The dining room is at the front of the main deck where delicious buffet style Asian and western meals are served. The saloon is large and spacious with comfortable lounges, big windows, bar fridge, and complimentary fresh roast coffee, tea, soft drinks and juices. Multimedia entertainment centre including large flat screen TV for briefing and movies, large library and a full selection of marine life books.
There are two outside decks–the shade covered party deck with its comfy cushioned lounge suite around nearly the whole deck and the sun platform in front of the wheelhouse give you the choice to sun bake or not ! NITROX is available on every cruise.
Cabin Price Starts at
$ 354
Book your spot!
"I wanted freedom, open air, and adventure. I found it on the sea."
- Alain Gerbault
Itinerary
Raja Ampat
10 days / 9 nights
Day 1
- Check-in on board MV Mermaid II. As guest arrivals take place all through the day depending on flights you are welcome to board when you arrive and spend some time looking around Sorong, gearing up etc. Following the boat and safety briefing - its overnight to the Misool area, 90 nautical miles. It is almost impossible to put together a daily itinerary due to the magnificent diving everywhere we go. No trip is the same with so many different sites to visit and explore. If there is somewhere in particular you really have your heart set on please discuss with the Cruise Director who will do their utmost to get you there – conditions, ship and your safety allowing!
Day 2-5
- Misool is the southern island of Raja Ampat. Misool has many groups of islands and there are literally hundreds of dive sites around this magnificent area for all our guests. This is the entrance to divers' paradise and we will be here for a few days. Soft coral heaven and gorgeous gorgonian sea fans are the highlights of Misool. Pygmy seahorses are easily found in almost all the dive sites of Misool! Pinnacles and underwater seamounts with masses of fish, and visits of pelagics such as Giant Manta Rays, sharks and more await you in Misool. Some of the best areas in Misool include Sagof, Wagmab, Farondi, Boo, Fiabacet, Yuliet, Wailbatan, Warakaret and Pele.
Day 6-8
- Perhaps you will spend a day around the southern part of Batanta Island, where the diving is done on a black sand environment. This is where all the weird and wonderful creatures that you have seen in coffee table books like to live! Dive around the island of Kawe, a great place for schooling fish with beautiful reefs covered in black coral bushes and a very good chance to have encounters with Manta Rays. There is a pearl farm in Aljui Bay, where you can take a tour to learn about the entire process of pearl farming. You can even buy pearls if you wish! Diving in Aljui bay is good for macro as well as wide angle. You will find walls covered in soft corals and sea fans, lots of nudibranchs and pygmy seahorses. There is also a great night dive at the jetty where some of the highlights are the Raja epaulette shark (a species of “walking shark”), wobbegongs, crocodile fish, toadfish, frogfish and more.
- Heading to the central part of Raja Ampat dive around the island of Yanggefo, with beautiful mangrove areas, stunning reefs covered in orange and purple soft corals and submerged reef with lots of schooling fish. Arborek and Sawanderek Villages are some of the most beautiful islands to visit and great to dive under their jetty! The jetty pillars are covered in soft corals – a photographer’s delight and also good for macro such as signal gobies, nudibranchs, pipefish, blue ringed octopus and more. The Mantas are then calling Mermaid I to visit the famous Dampier Strait in the central part of Raja Ampat. Here Mantas hang out at their cleaning stations along with all the schooling fish that the sites have to offer. At some of the sites in the Dampier Strait, the macro marine life is amazing with critters such as the seamoth, Pontohi pygmy seahorse, pipefish and more. The Dampier Strait is also well known for an incredible amount of schooling fish. There are several pinnacles with zillions of fish. The tips (capes) of several islands are also home to lots of schooling fish - barracudas, bigeye jacks, snappers, zillions of fusiliers and surgeonfish and much more. As if that weren’t enough, here you can find lots of wobbegong sharks too.
Day 9
- The last two dives of your cruise will be done in Dampier Strait area, where big schools of fish and glorious corals are simply amazing! After the second dive MV 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.
Day 10
- 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 number of dives for your cruise may be adapted to best suit the weather conditions, tides and currents, season and other prevailing events.
Alor
10 days / 9 nights
Day 1
- Check-in on board MV Mermaid II between 12:00-15:00 hours in Maumere Harbour, Flores. After the boat and safety briefing, we'll set up equipment and you can settle into your cabin. Dinner will be served at 19:00 hours as we cruise into the sunset on our overnight journey to Kawula Island, east of Flores.
Day 2
- We will start the trip by spending the day at Lewaling Bay, in the north of Kawula Island. The scenery of the bay is amazing since there are 2 volcanos in each side of the bay. There we will do 4 dives. The diving at Lewaling Bay is very diverse, consisting of walls, slopes and muck dives. With a great combination of large and small critters, from schooling barracudas and lots of schooling fish to pygmy seahorses. We will finish the day with a muck dive as a night dive in front of the village of Watu Warawutun, which stands at the bottom of one of the volcanos. After dinner we will cruise overnight to the Alor Islands, which are about 7 to 8 hours away.
Day 3-5
- The next 2 days we will spend them diving around the Pantar Strait, which is the strait between the 2 major islands of Alor, Pantar Island and Alor Island. There are 4 islands in the Pantar Strait, Ternate in the north, Reta and Pura in the middle and Treweg in the south. Between these 4 islands plus the islands of Pantar and Alor, there are several dozen dive sites with an incredible variety of diving sceneries: walls with huge overhangs and hard coral gardens in the shallows, fringing reefs covered with pristine hard and soft corals and all kind of sponges surrounded by zillions of anthias and damsels, black sandy slopes covered with thousands of anemones, and muck dives where we can find rhinophias, fire sea urchins with coleman’s shrimps and zebra crabs, channels between the islands where you just drift with some strong currents and look out for pelagic fish passing by. The water temperature can vary greatly in this area. In the northern and middle area, the temperature is usually around 27 C. And in the south, it can vary from 21C to 25C. Currents can be extremely strong in the Pantar Strait, which usually makes for 30 mts plus visibility.
Day 6
- On the fifth day of the trip, we will skip the 2 morning dives in order to visit a traditional village at Alor Island, where the locals will perform a local dance and where the guests will be able to buy locally made handicrafts. Then we will return to Mermaid I in order to have lunch and do 2 more dives at the Pantar Strait.
Day 7
- Today Mermaid I will start cruising early in the morning in order to get to a small bay at the south tip of the Pantar Strait called Beanbagan, where we will spend the whole day. Or we will do 1 or 2 dives at Treweg Island and then move to Beanbagan. The dive sites at Treweg island consist of rocky slopes covered in all kind of soft corals, and where one can just drift looking for all kind of pelagic fish such as dogtooth tunas and giant trevallies. The diving at Beanbagan Bay and village is very different from the rest of Alor. It consists mainly of blackish and grayish sand which is the perfect environment to find all kinds of different critters such as frogfish, ghost pipefish and different species of octopi. There is also a jetty at the village which large schools of scads and batfish. And it is also a great place to find more critters and all kind of nudis. The water temperature in the south of the Alor Islands can vary from 21C to 25C. After dinner we will cruise overnight to the village of Lamakera, in the south of Kawula Island
Day 8
- We start the day doing a dive at a fringing reef in front of the whaling village of Lamakera. And then we will move to the small island of Suangi, in the south of Kawula Island, to do 2 dives. The waters surrounding Suangi and steaming with schooling fish, pelagic fish and it is also a place where sharks are usually spotted. We will again move the boat after the 4th dive to finish the day in the Solar Strait, south of Adonara Island, in order to a muck dive as a night dive.
Day 9
- The last day of diving will be at the small island of Serbete, just northwest of Adonara island, where we will finish with 2 dives. Spectacular walls covered in soft corals and sponges, where one can spend time looking for tiny critters among the soft corals and sponges, or just drift along the wall looking at the spectacular views of the walls. Sadly, after the 2nd we will start heading back to Maumere, approximately 6 hours away.
Day 10
- After breakfast, Mermaid I staff will transfer you to the airport. This is a sample itinerary and is subject to changes beyond the operator’s control.
- The exact itinerary, route and number of dives for your cruise may be adapted to best suit the weather conditions, tides and currents, season and other prevailing events.
- Accommodations
- Transfer to/from the vessel on departure/arrival days as per each cruise destination allowances
- All meals, snacks, fruits, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, soft drinks and drinking water
- Tanks, weights, weight belts and diving with experienced and certified Divemasters & Instructors
- Any applicable fuel surcharge, transfers to/from anywhere outside the cruise free transfer zone as per our information packs
- Equipment rental
- Any on board courses
- Nitrox and national park/port fees or on board purchase of dive insurances
- Any of these exclusions are to be paid in Indonesia only
- National Park/Port Fees: are payable on board only. National Park and Port fees are subject to increase and/or amendment by government policy and are out of Mermaid Liveaboards' control
Take a look around
Cabins
Price depends on itinerary – email us info@apexoceantravel.com
All deluxe cabins are on the main deck of MV Mermaid II with large panoramic sea view windows. Each deluxe cabin can be a double bed or twin. Each cabin has individually controlled air-conditioning and an en suite bathroom. You can be assured of a fantastic night’s rest on a quality bed, fitted with minimum 300 thread count bed linens.
Price depends on itinerary – email us info@apexoceantravel.com
The two budget cabins are located on the lower deck on MV Mermaid II. Each cabin has twin bunks, a vanity sink, individually controlled air-conditioning and shares a bathroom with one other cabin via adjoining doors. You can be assured of a fantastic night’s rest on a quality bed, fitted with minimum 300 thread count bed linens.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which airport should I fly into?
Can non-divers join?
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What kind of food is served?
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What payment methods are acceptable on board Hondius?
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When does the boat embark/disembark?
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