Dive Review of Tambora in
Indonesia/Sorong to Ambon

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Tambora: "Raja Ampat to Ambon - lots of variety", Oct, 2017, by Lisa C. Evans, CO, US ( Sr. Contributor 24 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 9894 has 2 Helpful votes.
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 10.5 dive day liveaboard starting in Sorong, diving Misool and other nearby Raja Ampat sites for 3 days, then across the Seram Sea to the Banda Sea and Ambon Island. Pros: Very good dive briefings on the boat. Guides always checked current from tenders, which was great. Honest and open discussion of options by cruise director/owner. Some truly fabulous sites, including one new one in the Banda Sea. Visibility in Misool was disappointing - second time this has happened to me. Comfortable rooms - ours was small but had better storage space than most. Food was decent - some great dishes, some okay. Good variety. Nice homemade breads. Stuck to dive schedule, 4 dives per day when itinerary allowed a night dive. Lots of variety in dive sites - one small island in the Banda sea had one dive with humongous barrel sponges, another with huge elephant ear sponges. We had dives with soft corals, hard corals, amazing variety. Only a couple muck dives - Banda Neira to see Mandarin fish and dive black sand, 2 dives on the last day at Ambon Bay. Cons: Although we had 4 divers/guide, one guide was a trainee, so his group was with another all the time - which meant 8 divers in a group. Guides were good at finding things, but dug around in the bottom a lot to find crabs and put them out for people to take photos of - highly unethical in my view. Who wants a picture of a crinoid crab sitting out on a sponge anyway? Guides sometimes didn't monitor divers very much - which had pros and cons (could dive own profile, but if you were struggling to keep up on a long swim in current, they didn't notice...)
Websites	Tambora
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	GBR, Philippines x 5, Raja Ampat x 3, Komodo, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Lembeh, Caribbean, Bali, Palau, Yap, Red Sea, Maldives, Ambon, etc
Closest Airport	Sorong	Getting There	They do many itineraries. To start in Sorong, fly from Jakarta, Manado, Denpasar.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	82-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-60 Ft/ 9-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Reasonable group diving, 4 divers per guide, though sometimes groups ended up together. Didn't have to follow guide. Everyone went up when they needed to; guide monitored if they were in the group. Guides stayed down til last diver surfaced.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	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
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Small camera room - most people had small rigs, which was good - otherwise there would not have been enough space at all. Light not great in camera room. Shelves not protected - suggested putting rigs on floor during transit nights - luckily it was generally calm. Good care taken by crew with cameras.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Tambora in Indonesia/Sorong to Ambon

Tambora: "Raja Ampat to Ambon - lots of variety", Oct, 2017,

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 Tambora in
Indonesia/Sorong to Ambon