Mermaid 2 - Bali to Komodo liveaboard itinerary

Check-in on board MV Mermaid I between 14:00-16:00 hours in Benoa Harbour Bali. After the boat and safety briefing, we'll set up equipment and you can settle into

your cabin. Dinner will be served approx 19:00 hours as we cruise into the sunset on overnight journey to Moyo Island, north west Sumbawa.

Start your adventure with a great dive in the calm, clear waters of Angel  Reef at Moyo Island. Massive elephant ear and barrel sponges, schools of long fin banner fish and red tooth triggers. In their hundreds, nudibrancs, ribbon eels, surgeon fish, snapper, dog tooth tuna are all here. Afterwards there is a chance to visit the local village before lunch. Next we move 2 hours to Satonda island to look for the rare Denise pygmy seahorse, frogfish, mantis shrimps and ghost pipefish. At sunset we watch the millions of fruit bats cross the channel to Sumbawa followed by a night dive here to show the other half of the reef coming alive.
After dinner we cruise  overnight to Sangeang Island, off the north coats of Sumbawa.

We start with 2 dives at Sangeang Island, one of he Indonesia's best kept secrets, for rare nudibrancs, pygmy seahorse, frogfish and underwater bubbling hot springs that support this very unique marine life. Afterwards we cruise to Gili Banta for exhilarating dives at Tanduk Rusa for big fish and amazing corals or GPS Point, famous for its sharks and pelagics. Then we enter the Komodo National Park and night dive at Gili Lawalaut - sleeping turtles, colourful reef stone fish, Spanish dancers – calm sea- a great place to stay the night.

For dive 1 we hunt grey and white tip reef sharks and dolphins at Takat Toko (Castle rock) off Gili Lawalaut. Dive 2 is a fast drift with pelagics and mantas at Lighthouse Reef or the Old Passage. Then Crystal Rock awesome soft corals and the chance for sharks, turtles, giant Maori wrasse, a ‘fish soup” dive with a high chance of eagle rays too ! Then we cruise south for a fantastic night dive at Pink Beach for Coleman shrimp, zebra crabs,frogfish, spanish dancers and many other weird and wonderful critters in the Komodo National Park.

Start your day with an exciting visit to Komodo National Park to walk with the dragons !
Then relax as we cruise 2 hours south to Horseshoe Bay, Rinja Island. Spectacular
diving awaits at the world famous site of Cannibal Rock –  rare nudibrancs, frogfish, spectacular corals, sponges, ascidians, huge black coral bushes, turtles, cuttlefish, loads of reef fish too ! Watch dragons on the beach, monkey, deer, wild pigs along the shore, go beach combing…. Maybe even a chance to follow whales and dolphin feeding in the calm bay. We overnight at this peaceful place, night diving at the fabulous Torpedo alley for a chance to see the electiic torpedo rays.

Manta Alley or the Three Sisters starts the day for sharks and nudibrancs, surgeon fish and rays. Dive 2 is condition dependant and could be Takat Makasar for more chances to spot mantas aggregating or Batu Bolung aka “Current City”, the home for large Napolean Wrasse, turtles, blue fin trevally or maybe a dive at Tatawa Kecil – we check out the currents first to make sure the dive will be cool for everyone on board ! Then we say goodbye to Komodo National Park with a fabulous Night dive at Gili Banta with Coral Cat Shark and more then we cruise west enjoying a post dinner night dive along the way. Overnight we cruise to Satonda Island

We enjoy two fantastic dives at Satonda and Moyo Islands for more chances for ghost
pipe fish, ribbon eels, turtle, cuttlefish and the very rare Denise Pygmy seahorse before we cruise overnight to Benoa in the south of Bali.

After breakfast we transfer you ashore at 9am to continue your vacation…or its time to head home to start planning your next Mermaid cruise !
This is our normal 7 day schedule, this year we will be expanding our trips to 9 days on Mermaid I. The extra 2 days will be spent exploring some new sites and some new areas of the old ones. Mermaid II will be doing the regular 7 day schedule as above - read the Komodo diving blog from the liveaboards in Komodo