Dive Review of Pelagian Dive Yacht in
Indonesia

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Pelagian Dive Yacht, Jun, 2008, by Lori Brown, WA, USA ( Sr. Contributor 22 reports). Report 4207.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	The Pelagian is the live aboard associated with Wakatobi Dive Resort. We started our long journey in Seattle and flew through San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, and landed in Bali. Several employees from Wakatobi met us at the airport and got us through customs without a hitch. When we first collected our luggage, we noticed that there were chalk marks on both of our camera suitcases. My husband told me that he had read about this practice on the internet and that customs officials were going to demand an outlandish bribe to pass the photographic equipment. Sure enough, when we got up to customs, the agent demanded to open the camera bags. Our porter told the customs agent that we were going to Wakatobi. The customs agent immediately had the porter put the luggage back on the cart without opening it. I don’t know what deal Wakatobi has worked out with Customs in Bali, but whatever it was probably saved us an unpleasant, and presumably costly, run-in with customs. The day after arriving in Bali, we took the private charter flight from Bali to the Wakatobi airstrip. We were transferred by boat to the Pelagian. On arrival, we were shown to our cabins. Ours was the “superluxe” cabin and was very roomy and comfortable. Our son stayed in a shared “deluxe” cabin which was also quite comfortable. The Pelagian traveled overnight to our first dive site near the island of Wangi Wangi. Originally, the plan was to travel from Wangi Wangi Bay to Buton Island but the winds were so strident that we ended up traveling to Hoga Island just northeast of Kaladupa Island. The next day, we traveled to near Buton Island. We stayed there for two days because the dives were so spectacular, and also because the wind was a continuing problem. A few of my favorite dive sites: The Vatican (near Buton Island) was an amazing dive site. Within a one yard squared area, we saw a ribbon eel; two little signal gobies churning through the sand; three juvenile (and I mean tiny) banded pipe fish; and a one inch long octopus hiding in tiny holes on a rock. There was also a lot of staghorn coral at this site which was chock full of juvenile fish including many types of butterfly fish, tangs, cardinal fish, and wrasses. We did awesome night dives at the Magic Pier (also near Buton). There were dozens of decorator crabs, some with anemones or sponges, and one with an urchin on its back. There was a demon stinger fish feeding happily. There were swarms of hundreds of razor fish and a sneaky trumpet fish hiding in the razor fish storm. We speculated that the trumpet fish might be having a few tasty razor fish. There were puffer fish everywhere, all different sorts. We saw blue ring octopus on both nights we dove there and one of the group saw a White V Octopus which mimicked a flounder. At the Inner Reef dive in Wangi Wangi Bay, there was a large school of small barracuda (about 75-100) and a small school of large barracuda (about 10-20). A large table coral, about six feet across, hung over the edge of the wall. There were a half dozen unicorn fish under the table coral at a cleaning station. There were also many gorgonian fans, some measuring up to six feet across. The Pelagian staff was professional and considerate. The dive masters, Marcos, Sissi, and Cornelius enjoyed leading dives and pointed out points of interests at each dive. The pre-dive briefings were thorough. The house staff on the boat couldn’t have been more accommodating. They made an effort no matter what the request. The meals were well prepared and delicious. Just one complaint I had and that was the use of Zodiac Tender boats to go to the dive sites. Our gear was loaded on the boats and left there for the duration of the trip. It was difficult to access our equipment for adjustments between dives. I like to fiddle with my equipment between dives, but the Zodiac tenders were small and didn’t permit easy access. Overall we were happy with our choice of the Pelagian for our live aboard vacation.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, Washington (Puget Sound), Bonaire, Cozumel, Fiji, Indonesia (Irian Jaya and Sulawesi), Jamaica, Papua New Guinea
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	A room dedicated to photographers with plenty of chargers, outlets, etc.

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Dive Review of Pelagian Dive Yacht in Indonesia

Pelagian Dive Yacht, Jun, 2008,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Pelagian Dive Yacht in
Indonesia