Raja Ampat, Indonesia · October 2016
Raja Ampat 2016: where the reefs forgive everything
Ten days on liveaboard, somewhere between Sorong and Misool
There are trips you plan for years and there are trips that quietly become the standard by which every other trip is measured. Raja Ampat 2016 was the second kind. We flew into Sorong on a Tuesday with eleven travelers, three of whom had never been on a liveaboard, and one of whom had not been diving in over a decade. By Friday everyone was asking when the next one was leaving.
What follows is the recap from that trip. Some of the details have softened the way good memories do, but the dives, the food, and the way the group came together by day three, none of that has faded.
Day by day
Day 1
Sorong, the briefing, and a sunset check dive
We board the boat by mid-afternoon, a wooden phinisi that smells like teak and salt and somebody's coffee. Cabins get assigned, gear gets unpacked, and the cruise director runs us through the safety briefing while the crew quietly drops the lines. Our first dive is a gentle drop into 18 meters of clear water just outside the harbor. Glassy sweepers, a curious cuttlefish, and the first of what will be a hundred conversations about white balance.
Day 2
The Dampier Strait shows up early
By breakfast we are already in the Dampier Strait, and the current is the kind that asks you to commit. Sardine Reef in the morning gives us a wall of schooling fusiliers thick enough to dim the sun, and an oceanic manta cruises through twice like she is checking attendance. Our two newest divers do their first proper drift, and surface grinning into the tender.
Day 3
Cape Kri and the count nobody wins
Cape Kri is famous for a reason. We do it twice, once in the morning and once in golden afternoon light, and both times the bommie is so dense with life that there is no way to look at all of it. Bumphead parrotfish, giant trevally, a passing reef shark, and on the second dive a school of barracuda that wraps the whole group in a slow tornado for nearly a minute. Nobody talks much at dinner. We are all still buzzing.
Day 4
Crossing to Misool
A long steam south overnight. Misool feels different the moment you step onto the dive deck, the water is glassier, the limestone islands rise straight out of it like teeth. Magic Mountain in the afternoon, and the name turns out to be accurate. Two reef mantas at the cleaning station, plus a third that comes in late and circles the group twice before leaving the way she came.
Day 5
Macro day in the south
We slow down. The dives today are critter dives, the kind where the dive guide hovers patiently over a single rock for ten minutes until you finally see the pygmy seahorse you have been looking at the whole time. Wobbegongs tucked under coral plates, mantis shrimp posing on cue, and a tiny boxer crab waving her pom-poms at the group. The photographers are happy. The non-photographers learn to slow their breathing and appreciate what tiny looks like.
Day 6
Boo Windows and the long ride home
Our last full dive day. Boo Windows in the morning, two stacked archways framed by sea fans, with light shafts that look intentional. After lunch the boat starts moving north, and we spend the afternoon on the upper deck swapping photos and arguing about which dive was the best one. (There is no winner. There is never a winner.)
Day 7
Sorong and the slow goodbye
Disembark, group breakfast at a cafe near the harbor, and then the part of every trip that is always harder than people expect. Two travelers head straight to Bali for a week. Two others rebook the same trip for the following October on the cab ride to the airport. The rest of us trade contact details and promise to keep in touch, and for once the group actually does.
From the trip
From the travelers
“I had not been diving in twelve years. By the third day I felt like I had never stopped. Niki and the crew made that possible.”
“You hear people say Raja Ampat is the best diving in the world and you assume it is hype. It is not hype.”
“The group was the surprise. I came for the diving and left with eight new friends and one already-booked next trip.”
Raja Ampat keeps a list of the people it changes. It is a long list. Ten days on that boat is not a vacation, it is a recalibration of what you thought a trip could feel like, and what you thought a group of strangers could become by the end of it. If you have been waiting for a sign to book the one you have been thinking about, this is it.
Want to do this one yourself?
We run trips like this every year. See where we're headed next and grab a spot before the group fills up.