Dive Review of Walindi Plantation Resort/FeBrina in
Papua New Guinea/Kimbe Bay

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Walindi Plantation Resort/FeBrina, Jul, 2014, by Jennifer Widom, CA, US ( Contributor 12 reports with 4 Helpful votes). Report 7698 has 1 Helpful vote.
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	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	(Note: We posted the same review on Tripadvisor) Like many other reviewers, we found the FeBrina to be an extremely well-run boat, and the Kimbe Bay area to provide pristine, high-quality diving. FeBrina should be on the list of any serious liveaboard diver! The longer version: The FeBrina has been in operation as a liveaboard dive boat since 1991, with a single owner & skipper Alan Raabe; Alan has rarely missed a trip in 23 years. While quite a few reviews describe Alan as a salty character, perhaps he's mellowed lately -- we found him to be humble, pleasant, and interesting to talk with. The excellent crew are all PNG locals, and some have been on the boat almost as long as Alan. Clearly, Alan is doing something right, and it shows across the entire enterprise: The schedule runs like clockwork; the dive guides are experienced, competent, and knowledgeable; the cooks turn out delicious meals and snacks (including thoughtful catering to the vegetarian in our family); the engineer and "cabin girls" keep the boat ship-shape. The boat's not large or luxurious, but the cabins are spacious enough and very comfortable, and the salon and dive deck are set up so people almost never seem to be in each other's way. We did miss a sundeck area and lounge chairs; a couple of platforms on the front of the boat and a dive-deck picnic table were modest substitutes. (We would have missed an outdoor lounge area far more had we not spent so much time underwater!) Most importantly, Alan is fastidious about maintenance, so everything works -- hardly a given on any liveaboard. This boat is for divers who prefer flawless operation and lots of diving over luxury. We're seasoned divers, including many trips to various destinations in the "coral triangle," so we didn't see much underwater we hadn't seen somewhere before. The closest we came was a lucky underwater encounter with dolphins, our second. But the combination of 82-degree water, excellent visibility, generally easy diving (just a few currents here and there), and consistently pristine reefs is hard to beat. Although bait boxes were brought down a couple of times there were quite a few sharks even without them, a few turtles, some macro critters to keep the photographers happy, and most importantly the reefs were lush and teeming with fish everywhere, not just here and there like some other destinations. We were offered five dives on days the boat didn't move a great distance, four dives on transit days, and two dives on the final day. Although dives were scheduled, with dive guides in the water at all times, there was no pressure to stay in a group. All of the divers on our boat were experienced and given plenty of independence. We were lucky to have only four serious photographers aboard, since they competed for some of the smaller critters, as well as for attention from dive guide Digger, whose decades on the FeBrina have turned him into quite a remarkable underwater photo coach. Also worth mentioning is long-time dive guide and "cruise director" Josie, who combined a sunny personality with a tight operation.
Websites	Walindi Plantation Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	worldwide
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	81-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-150 Ft/ 15-46 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	few restrictions
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 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	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	quite a bit of camera space on deck

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Walindi Plantation Resort/FeBrina in Papua New Guinea/Kimbe Bay

Walindi Plantation Resort/FeBrina, Jul, 2014,

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 Walindi Plantation Resort/FeBrina in
Papua New Guinea/Kimbe Bay