MV Cheng Ho - Dive Trip Itinerary - 13 Days - 12 Nights

Including: Kri Island, Wai Island, Misool Islands, Koon Island, Banda Nera and Nusa Laut

The Irian Jaya to Ambon (via Banda Sea) cruise is available from the port of Sorong (Irian Jaya) to Ambon or vice versa. This is usually a twelve night voyage.
       
Please note that these itineraries are subject to change depending on local weather and diving conditions and that all times are approximate.

Detailed itinerary for cruises from Sorong to Ambon, for cruises starting in Ambon the same itinerary applies in reverse.

Day One: Arrival Sorong Airport
You will be picked up and escorted to the MV Cheng Ho for immediate boarding. Cabin allocation and ship orientation will take place before departure at 15:00. Take this opportunity to familiarise yourself with the vessel and get comfortable. Dinner will be served while sailing towards our first dive destination.

Day Two: Kri Island
The reefs in this area are protected by Max Ammer from the Papua Diving Resort. If you would like to add some diving days before the cruise you can just stay at his resort and join the MV Cheng Ho right outside the Lagoon. Kri is a great start of the cruise with the most fish and coral species accounted on a single dive site. Truly pristine reefs, you will want to dive these sites over and over. A night dive will be on offer.

Day Three: Wai Island
After a light breakfast dive number one of the day will be made in the calm shores of Wai Island. After the dive a sturdier breakfast will be served and another dive will be made on the American plane that crashed in the 1940’s. The wreck is upside down and between 24-34 meters deep. The wreck is fairly intact and covered in corals especially on the lower side of the tail section. Lunch will be served on board, if you wish, you may take a short trip ashore to see the resident cassowary bird.

Days Four, Five and Six: Misool Island Group
This area is  famed for being a prolific habitat for pygmy seahorses and on most dives the guides can locate all three species. The deepest part of the sea in this area is only about 60 meters. This area offers more than 1100 species of fish and over 450 different species of corals making the Misool Islands one of the most diverse marine habitats in the world.

Day Seven: Koon Island
Koon Island is located in the South of Seram Island and is the next stop. Koon has only one dive site named “too many fish”. What makes Koon so special is the location on a trench that goes down to over 3000 meters. All the big Sea life that passes from the north to the south ocean has to go trough these waters. Large schools of all kinds of fish are seen here as well can be orcas, whales and sharks. Depending on the moon phase the strong currents can make this dive very challenging.

Days Eight, Nine and Ten: Banda Neira
There are some exceedingly good reef dives on the east and north sides of the islands, but the real gem is under the pier and in front of a small hotel’s sea wall. Here not only marine life treasures such as pipe fish of all varieties, frog fish of many varieties and colour variations, and a plethora of juvenile fish seeking sanctuary in the calm waters, but also the least bashful and largest mandarin fish ever! These colourful gems are out of their hiding places all day and are in such shallow water that they can be seen from the pier.

Day Eleven: Nusa Laut
Nusa Laut just east of Ambon was made famous from two of east Indonesia’s famous diving pioneers, Larry Smith and Edi Frommenweiler. Larry have said it was his favourite reef in the entire eastern region of this great archipelago. It is truly a spectacular location and a full days diving will be on offer.

Days Twelve and Thirteen: Ambon
Ambon harbour is a long, deep harbour surrounded on both sides by steep, verdant volcanic slopes. The first dive site is under a pier close to the Ambon airport and has the boasting rights of being able to call itself the first great muck site in the world, this is normally where one can get a glimpse of the rare Ambon scorpion fish. Also on offer is a pristine wreck covered with hard and soft corals, lots of fish in relatively shallow water.

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