HELP-need info on N. Sulawesi Liveaboard Options

The Aggressor fleet has cancelled their N. Sulawesi iteneraries (on which I was booked for early May) and my wife and I are in a bit of a bind. We have our airfare etc... and no place to stay. On the plus side, Aggressor will reimburse us for anything we are out, but I have been planning this trip for years and would like to know other options prior to cancelling the entire thing. I am aware of land operations, but really dont enjoy setting up and taking down my gear every day- therefore, we typically dive liveaboards. With this in mind, Im looking to tap into the collective expertise here.

What are the liveaboard options departing Manado? What are the accomodations like- personally, I could sleep on a cinder block, but my wife requires something a bit nicer (gotta keep the home life happy). To put things in perspective, she enjoys the accomodations we have experienced on the Aggressor line, however, the Nekton boats were considered less desireable (and I doubt we would use them again). Can anybody here provide some guidence based on these criteria for options? Any help is appreciated.

There aren't many high quality live-aboards based year round in N. Sulawesi. ocean Rover is here a lot, but most only visit for a few weeks.

Is it the Lembeh or the Bunaken side of things that most interests you?

What type of diving are you interested in - mostly reef, muck or mix? At least at Lembeh Resort & KBR the staff takes good care of your gear. I just take fins & mask to the day boat for first dive then leave them on board for the rest of the day. Never have to mess with the big stuff until its time to pack on last day. Pretty much like my liveaboard experiences. If you want to dive the islands north of Sulawesi then liveaboard is best, but for Bunakan & Lembeh a nice resort works great. Just requires a bit more walking around.

How many days? Ocean Rover departs on May 5 and May 22nd. Their trips are longer than the Aggressor.

Just do land based. You can split time between Lembeh and the Manado side. Lot's of good places to stay. Lembeh Resort or Kasawari would make your wife quite happy, but several others are fine, too.

You could stay near Manado or even Bangka to dive the reefs.

You can probably do the land trip cheaper than the Aggressor.

The liveaboards in the area tend to be middle to budget class boats, some with shared bathrooms/showers like the Liburan.

If you want nicer boats, spend a bit more on airfare and continue onto Sorong and Raja Empat Islands. A few of the better boats in Indonesia should be still sailing there in May, although many will have started to head south for dry dock and preparation for the Komodo season. Do a search in this forum for liveaboard reviews. The diving in R.E. is much better than Sangihe/Talaud area, with more variety and biodiversity.

I'll add my vote for land based in this instance as well. Perhaps splitting time between Kima Bajo (very nice) resort to dive Bunaken and one of the others already mentioned for muck. It's a shame the Odyssea sank as it was a great L.A.

Rand

thanks all and keep the recommendations coming- Im leaning towards making this an all land adventure based on what I am hearing here. A couple more questions pop us as a result of this-

how difficult is it to transfer from one resort to another- were there for 12 days and I dont really want to spend all 12 at a single place- Im thinking it would be nice to stay at maybe 3 places and get a real flavor for all the types of diving the place has to offer. Are van transfers able to be arranged easily from one land based resort to another?

I see some recommendations above that talk to keeping gear set up until departure (a plus considering carrying around a housing and strobes is enough of a PITA)- are there places that are set up with secure camera storage or a place where a housing can be set up and not hauled around each day (the other thing I like about liveaboards) ie a place that really caters to UW-photogs?

I would stay at 2 resorts, 1 on or near bunaken, focusing on WA/fish sites, and 1 in lembeh.

If you arrange it properly, you can do the transfer in 3-4 hours total and still get 3-4 dives in that day.

Almost every resort will do all your gear hauling, you only worry about your camera.

thanks all and keep the recommendations coming- Im leaning towards making this an all land adventure based on what I am hearing here. A couple more questions pop us as a result of this-

 

how difficult is it to transfer from one resort to another- were there for 12 days and I dont really want to spend all 12 at a single place- Im thinking it would be nice to stay at maybe 3 places and get a real flavor for all the types of diving the place has to offer. Are van transfers able to be arranged easily from one land based resort to another?

 

I see some recommendations above that talk to keeping gear set up until departure (a plus considering carrying around a housing and strobes is enough of a PITA)- are there places that are set up with secure camera storage or a place where a housing can be set up and not hauled around each day (the other thing I like about liveaboards) ie a place that really caters to UW-photogs?

Kasawari, KBR and Lembeh Resort all REALLY cater to UW photgraphgers. Each of them have HUGE locked camera rooms where you have a large station with charging outlets. Very nice set up.

I was most recently at Lembeh Resort, and will tell you about that operation. The crew, from the guides to the boatmen, to the other dive operation personel are all excellent with cameras, will carry them to/from the boat (ifyou want) and take great care with handling them. The dive gear is set up for you (or you can do yourself) and on the boat waiting for you for each dive. You only need to carry your mask, and after they get used to your gear will have weight belt, fins, set up tank all ready for you on the boat. After you are finished diving, they, the guides and dive crew will rinse your bc and regulator for you. You are issued a "station" where your dive gear is stored. you have hangers for your wetsuit, and places for your other items there. This is an open area, but there is a 24 hour security guard right by the area. There is no need to be worried for your gear, nor the camera, as that gets locked (too early for my taste) at night, and can be opened by the security guard or the guides if any are around.

I also like liveaboards for their convenience of one time setup of your gear, but I dive Lembeh at land-based resorts. A comfortable bed, pool for between dives, and plenty of room for the camera crap.

I spent 14 days diving Lembeh at LR last year and have no regrets for staying at one place, but then again I love muck. Transfers are easily arranged and the dive resorts are accustomed to folks transferring from Lembeh to Bangka to Manado side. No problems.

Check out Santika hotel and Thalassa dive centre they are awesome with the advantage of being right in the Bunakin which means 10 mins to some of the very best dive sites.

Rooms are very good, food is excellent and the staff sort your dive gear out (You only see it on the boat already set-up) Guides are brilliant and know where to find all the little critters you will ever want.

Lembeh resort would be my # 1 choice in the strait.

Wherever you choose the diving here is some of the best on offer anywhere. I hope you have a brilliant time and get those 'special shots' this area can provide.

Nige Wade

I think it's pretty easy to arrange movement from one resort to the other. I didn't notice anyone mentioning Gangga Island which is another option just offshore from Manado. Some friends recently spent a week in Lembeh and transferred to Gangga without any problems for the rest of their stay. It's fairly easy to get from Lembeh to teh Manado side for Bunaken (I've only ever stayed at Murex for Bunaken diving).

I can recommend Lembeh Resort, we enjoyed our visit but that was two years ago.

Rinjani

I can recommend Lembeh Resort, we enjoyed our visit but that was two years ago.

It's the same as it was before. Quite good, indeed! I just returned from a trip there in December 2008.

In October we did a dive trip to Manado, spent one week at Kima Bajo diving Bunaken and another week and a half at Kungkungan Bay Resort (KBR) diving Lembeh Straits. Both have excellent diving service by ECO divers and they packed and took gear from one resort to other after a two tank morning dive. I can highly recommend both resorts. Both are camera friendly with camera rooms and the transport was effortless. I did not break down my camera system during the entire dive trip as it was transported in a plastic basket from resort to resort and from the camera room to the boat.

Elmer

We did the same as EYU; KBR to Kimo.

It was a seamless transfer.

Eric,

If you have the time take the Ocean Rover option - very nice vessel designed with photographers in mind. Their itinerary in the period also takes in some of the further islands.

I have made this trip with them 5 times and the variety of sites is very good.

Also nothing wrong with the land based (I favour Kasawari & Gangga).

I did the N.S. Aggressor and I would not recommend it at all. Subpar divesites, subpar (but veeery subpar... like in a lazy matter) diveguides and a not very cooperative captain plus some more things I just don´t want to remember mixed up with an expensive price are the main reasons why I would not do it again.

North Sulawesi is perfectly diveable from land without drawbacks. Specially Lembeh (as you have already been told) has several great resorts with constant happy divers reports.

For the Bunaken side of this pairing I would highly recommend Siladen Resort - which is on one of the islands right inside the marine park. The food was very good, the resort very nice, and the "house reef" is one of the best 5 dive sites in the whole park. Someone mentioned 10 min. to the dive sites - from Siladen we had a couple that were 3 minute rides...

The Aggressor fleet has cancelled their N. Sulawesi iteneraries (on which I was booked for early May) and my wife and I are in a bit of a bind. We have our airfare etc... and no place to stay. On the plus side, Aggressor will reimburse us for anything we are out, but I have been planning this trip for years and would like to know other options prior to cancelling the entire thing. I am aware of land operations, but really dont enjoy setting up and taking down my gear every day- therefore, we typically dive liveaboards. With this in mind, Im looking to tap into the collective expertise here.

 

What are the liveaboard options departing Manado? What are the accomodations like- personally, I could sleep on a cinder block, but my wife requires something a bit nicer (gotta keep the home life happy). To put things in perspective, she enjoys the accomodations we have experienced on the Aggressor line, however, the Nekton boats were considered less desireable (and I doubt we would use them again). Can anybody here provide some guidence based on these criteria for options? Any help is appreciated.

Is there a reason that the Paradise Dancer was not mentioned in this thread?

Paradise Dancer

I was there last July.. I trip to remember Slide Show

We have booked on the boat for Jan 29,2010 Raja Ampat (West Papua) trip..

Joe