Dive Review of Peter Hughes /Paradise Dancer in
Indonesia/North Sulawesi

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Peter Hughes /Paradise Dancer, May, 2009, by Rick Troberman, WA, USA ( Contributor 13 reports with 4 Helpful votes). Report 5161.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This was a fantastic trip in every way: the boat, the weather, the people, and most of all the diving. The Paradise Dancer is a newly built 150 foot all wood three masted motor-schooner, and is everything that it has been hyped up to be. In fact, it exceeded my expectations, which were quite high. The individual rooms are huge (almost twice the size of a typical liveaboard), and the bathrooms are comfortable and border on luxurious (not something you typically hear said about a dive boat)! The food was varied, plentiful, and good, even for the several Vegans on board. Blessed by the good weather, all meals on this trip were served outside on the main deck. Although the boat can accomodate up to 18 divers, we had only 10, including an English couple, a German couple, and six Americans. It was the best and most fun group of divers I have had the privilege of diving with, and we all had a marvelous time. Diving is done from two comfortable fiberglass skiffs, each with a 200 HP Yamaha outboard. Once set up, your gear remains on the skiffs. Entry is by backroll; exit up a dive ladder. Back on the boat, the crew is waiting with a snack and a short massage. We typically did four dives a day (including a night dive for anyone who wanted to go). The diving was varied (muck, walls, drifts, and even a wreck), as we travelled through the Lembeh Strait and Bangka Strait up into the Sangihe Islands, and back down through Bunaken National Marine Park, Lembeh, and back to the Port of Bitung. Of course, the muck diving is what people come to this area for, and we weren't disappointed. It is like no other place on the planet. Highlights of the trip included mimic octopus and wonderpus, flamboyant cuttlefish, stargazers, incredible varities of nudibranchs and other exotic bottom-dwellers not seen anywhere else, mating mandarin fish, and frogfish of all varities, including several giant frogfish the size of basketballs. My thanks to Wendy, Yan, and Acho (the dive guides), the rest of the crew of the Paradise Dancer, and to all of the other divers aboard who made this trip such a memorable experience.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Bali-Komodo, Tahiti, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Galapagos, Australia, Belize, Cayman Islands, St. Vincent, Grand Turk, Bahamas, Hawaii.
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	80-86°F / 27-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Bottom time of 60 minutes, but not strictly enforced.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	> 2
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Separate dedicated camera room with lots of power outlets (110 and 220). Separate rinse tank for cameras only. The crew carried the cameras to the skiffs, and handed them to the divers once in the water.

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Dive Review of Peter Hughes /Paradise Dancer in Indonesia/North Sulawesi

Peter Hughes /Paradise Dancer, May, 2009,

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 Peter Hughes /Paradise Dancer in
Indonesia/North Sulawesi