Ratu Laut Itineraries

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SAMPLE ITINERIES

Labuan Bajo – Komodo Island – Labuan Bajo, with dragon trek (4D/3N) approx: 12 Dives US$ 695
Labuan Bajo – Komodo Island – Labuan Bajo, with Dragon Trek (7D/6N) approx: 18 Dives US$ 1,295
Sorong – Raja Ampat – Sorong (7D/9N) Central and North, approx: 18 Dives US$ 1,695
Sorong/Waisai – Raja Ampat – Sorong/Waisai (Misool) – (10D/9N ) approx: 25 Dives US$ 2,300

Labuan Bajo – Komodo Island – Labuan bajo   May – October

– 6 Days /6 Nights  (Departure Saturday)
– 3 Days /3 Nights  (Departure Saturday & Tuesday)

THE EXPERIENCE
The Ratu Laut trips are designed to be laid back and relaxed, whilst covering the main dive areas, and
also extend out to some of the more unknown dive spots with the possibility to explore new dive spots
and islands. These trips are for the guest who wants to have fun, explore and relax throughout the 6
nights or 3 nights on board. She only caters for divers.
The Ratu Laut is not a luxury boat and we don’t offer luxury trips. She is however a very sturdy Phinisi
style schooner, travelling the Indonesian waters since 2008, with an excellent crew on board.
The trip leader plans for either 3 or 4 dives a day (the 4th dive being a night dive). On three dive days
they try to schedule in a beach visit or view point.

6 nights schedule – departing on Saturday 
Day 1 – board boat, set up and check – 1 dive
Day 2 – Day 6: either 3 dive day or 4 dive day
Day 7 – 1 dive and dragon trek + check-out

3 nights schedule – departing on Saturday
Day 1 – board boat, set up and check 1 dive
Day 2 – Day 3: one day 3 dives, one day 4 dives
Day 4 – 2 dive day + check-out

3 nights schedule – departing on Tuesday 
Day 1 – board boat, set up and check 1 dive
Day 2 – Day 3: one day 3 dives, one day 4 dives
Day 4 – 1 dive day and dragon trek + check-out

Sorong – Raja Ampat – Sorong (7D/9N) Central and North, approx: 18 Dives US$ 1,695

Day 1, We will meet you up at 7-7:30 am at Je Meridien Hotel and leaving at 8 am in Sorong and take you to the boat depends if the boat is in Sorong or in Waisai, If its in Waisai we will take the ferry to waisai.

We are going to start doing our check dive on the island of Mansuar dive site called Yenbuba Jetty. Stunning dive site and very easy to dive and where you can see everything from mantas to pygmy seahorses. We will be staying in the bay between Mansuar and Kri Island over the night.

Day 2, We move to the other side of Kri island and dive the famous chicken reef (Karang Ayam). It’s a submerge stunning reef and is good for big stuffs, like tunas, Spanish mackerel, grey reefs sharks, white/black tip reef sharks, wobbegong sharks, and big schools of fish.

It’s best to dive in when it has current bringing lot of hunting action. On the second dive, we’ll move closer to the world famous cape Kri, where schools of barracuda, jackfish, batfish, snapper, small reef fish, rays, sharks, turtles, and groupers, as well as the coral itself, are out-of-this-world. For the third dive, we move to west of Mansuar to dive the Jetty of the Sawandarek village, a protected dive site with stunning reef and good for pygmy seahorses, nudibranches, common octopus, and wobbegong sharks. Just under the jetty we can see schools of jacks. Next, we move to the west part of Dampier Strait to visit Arborek Island, in the Dampier strait between Gam and Mansuar. We will visit barefoot conservation to get information on where the mantas is hanging out so we know where to go the next day.

Day 3, We’ll only have about 15 minutes to manta sandy/manta ridge from Arborek Island. Manta sandy is one of the more famous manta dive sites in Raja Ampat, where you can see 4-5 mantas cleaned at the same time. We will dive manta ridge if the tide falls, to see a big amount of mantas hovering a couple of meters away, get fed by plankton carried by the strong current. We’re heading more west to Penemu and Fam Island aiming to dive the famous Melissa garden, you will see the best hard coral reef in Raja Ampat for sure.

The site is named after the diving pioneer, Max Ammer’s daughter and is rich of underwater biodiversity: thousands of tiny reef fish, black tips, wobbegong sharks, pygmy seahorses, and much more. For the third dive, we move to Kerou Chanel which can be a great drift dive if we get a little bit of current. It features a very nice reef, huge sea fans, and wonderful soft corals which are very good for macro. Yet, some bigger stuffs can pass us out in the blue. Finally, we’ll trek to Bintan Lagoon viewpoint, after we are done we start do a 6-7h night crossing up to the north to Kawe Island, one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites.

Day 4, We dive around Kawe Island, starting around the 3 famous island called Eagle Rock with their stunning reefs and, big fish soup, if you are lucky. The main reason to dive here is to see more Manta rays coming in to get cleaned in the cleaning stations around the rocks.

On the second dive, we move over Black Rock, one of the best reef up in the north. It has nice soft coral reef and insane amount of different schooling fish, great for pygmy seahorses, turtles, black tip reef sharks. Going a bit deeper, we’ll see big marble rays and mantas can passing by in the shallow part. After the second dive, we move back to the eagle rock again.

Normally, the current have changed by the time we get there and we can dive on different rock. After the third dive, we need to visit the village to get a permit before we mooring up inside the stunning Alyui Bay for a night dive at the famous pearl farm. Before diving here, prepare your camera and macro lens for a muck diving. The underwater view of Alyui Bay is arguably perfect for your macro and wide-angle lenses to capture diverse marine life like nowhere else.

Day 5, We’ll go for another wonderful dive in Alyui Bay, starting the morning dive at chanel #5., a dive site with nice swim throws among the big rocks, big schools of sweetlips, and fusiliers. White tip sharks sleep under the big rock, and pygmy seahorses are here and there. Here, we can also encounter dolphins, so keep out looking for them upon going up to do a safety stop. Then, we move to Yangeffo Islands for our second dive which was an exploration dive for our cruise director, when he worked for his old company.

The site was so good, a great mix of macro and bigger stuff, that make us keep coming since that moment. Getting a sloping reef down to 15 meter, continue drifting until hitting the sand area where you can see flamboyant cuttlefish, robust ghost pipefish, ornate ghost pipe fish, decorator crabs, nudibranches, shrimps, and frogfishes if you are lucky.

After a while, you’ll hit the reef again where you can spot eagle rays and manta rays on lucky days. After a stop around Yangeffo, we’ll continue the trip for our last dive of the day in Gam. The famous citrus ridge, a very fishy dive site to see stunning coral garden, yellow soft corals, schooling barracudas, sweetlips, tunas, Spanish mackerel, nudibranches, pygmy seahorses, frogfishes, and others. Next, we take a trip back to the east part of Dampier Straight, directly to Waisai to load up food and water supply.

Day 6, We will wake you up at 04:45 for small breakfast and take you with the boat around 05:00 to watch the birds of paradise. Then, we have a big breakfast and a break before diving the famous Blue Magic, close to the island of Mioskon.

On good days, this submerged reef has 5 meters visibility because the whole dive site is covered with schools of fish. We can also encounter the oceanic manta rays here. For the second dive we move to Sardine reef with submerged sloping coral reef which should be dived in current.

Otherwise, there is no fish around. It’s very good for big stuff as you’ll see school of fusiliers, rainbow runners, barracudas, sweetlips, giant trevallies, Spanish mackerel, grey reef sharks and much more. If there is current, you can get loads of hunting action and hear underwater thunder when the small fish move fast upon the tunas strike the bait ball.

Then, we move down to Kri Island again to visit the homestay and trek the amazing viewpoint over Mansuar Island. You can just bring snorkel gear if you don’t want to do the trekking and later we do our third dive of the day, a night dive on the Yenkoranu Jetty. It’s a coral sloping reef with sand and bommies in the beginning and more reefs later which is very good for macro. There are pygmys seahorses, bobtail squids, pipefish, walking shark, mandarin fish, octopuses, cuttlefish, and even sleeping turtles on the reef to see there.

Day 7, we’ll have an opportunity for one dive in the morning. Since this is going to be our last cruise day, you’ll have a plenty of time to dry your equipment on the way back home. Normally our guest always want to go back to blue magic again or different dive site around Kri Island.

On our way back, we will do a final briefing, exchanging emails and photos, and say farewells to the crew. The crew will organize a transportation to your hotel.

This itinerary works for a normal 7-days route. The cruise day can be extended to 10-days cruise with some other diving sites to visit in Misool Island. There are numerous spectacular diving sites you may explore during our diving cruise. All of those marvelous diving sites are situated around some famous islands in West Papua.

Sorong/Waisai – Raja Ampat – Sorong/Waisai (Misool) – (10D/9N )  US$ 2300

Day 1. We meet you up at 7am in the Meridien hotel in Sorong.

At 8 am we go together to the boat depending if the departure is from Sorong or Waisai.

We will do our check dive in Mansuar island and then do an 18-20h crossing over night to Misool.

Day 2. We are going to dive in Wagmab or Gamfi followed by a dive at the Farondi Cave, a dive site characterized with shallow soft coral reef, long sloping tunnel, and bottom covered in white sand, sea fans and sponge barrels.

This brings an ideal habitat for Tiger Shrimp and unusual Signal Gobies.
At Farondi Cave, divers can expect to see stalactites and other unusual limestone formations covering the arching ceiling. We’ll end the trip at Wagmab, or the three sisters, before moving to the south east.

Day 3. Chasing after Yellow-tail Fusiliers and other sea critters at the No Contest dive site will be an opening of our diving activities on the day. Then, we will take the next diving at the Two Tree Island. Two Tree Island is very famous for Mobula rays hunting big bait ball of anchovies since it boasts abundant schooling fish. Finally, we’ll do the last dive at Baby Rock with full of thousands bait fish. At the end of the day, we are moving to south over a night crossing.

Day 4. We’ll take the first dive of the third day at the Shadow Reef, a famous dive site to encounter manta rays. Shadow Reef is a submerged seamount south of Boo where various fish life in all sizes. You can expect to see baby white tip reef sharks sleeping under the table corals, schooling barracuda, and bat fish. Manta ray may be seen circling the cleaning stations if you are lucky. After Shadow Reef, we’ll continue the journey up North West, taking

Boo window as the second dive site. Boo Window is one of the most famous dive sites due to its unique topography. Here, you may see patrolling sharks such as Wobbegong Shark under the coral table. Within good current condition, we’ll move to the pinnacle, which is often surrounded by schools of fusiliers and plate-sized Bat fish. Our third dive will take place at the huge island of Yilliet, stretching east to west, becoming a home to shark finning camp, Barramundi cod, Hawksbill Turtles, and schooling barracuda. At the end of the day, we’ll move down to the south west.

Day 5. We’ll start our trip on day 4 around the Fiabacet chain, to visit the Nudi rock, which get its name since it looks a lot like a nudibranch from a distance. It is a favourite dive site for critter enthusiasts and macro photographers. You’ll have a chance to see numerous nudibranchs lurking among the soft corals. The sea fans here are the house for pygmy seahorses and cowries, shrimp and cling fish. During good current, we’ll go around pinnacles crowded with larger pelagics, such as Barracuda, Big Eyed Travelly, and Grey Reef Shark.

After the Nudi Rock, we’ll continue the trip to the Tank Rock and finally to the final dive taking place in whale rock. Expect to see a healthy fish life, pygmy seahorses galore, nudis, colourful anemones, reef sharks, and perhaps a Wobbegong shark. Then, we’ll move to west, do a crossing from Fiabacet make the all way to Wayilbatan.

Day 6, At the Wayilbatan Four Kings, we’ll do the first morning dive of the day.

Then, we’ll visit Baracuda rock, one of the most famous diving sites in Raja Ampat known for its schooling Barracudas spotted around the reef. Our last diving site is the Wedding Cake, to see marvel at the overhangs and bommies within the dive site. The boat will take you back a little bit to north east, aiming at the Wayilbatan Chanel.

Day 7. Starting the day with a diving at Fantasea or Wayilbatan chanel, which is not much about the fish, but more about coral, especially sea fans. Then we’ll take you to the Yilliet Kecil, a cool dive site near the Yilliet Island. Afther Yiliet Kecil, we’ll take about 15 to 18 hours crossing from Misool to reach Melissa’s Garden.

Day 8. We’ll return to Melissa’s Garden to get back to Raja Ampat’s best hard coral reef which is rich of underwater biodiversity. Then, after Melissa’s Garden, We’ll dive Manta Ridge in the Dampier strait which is good to dive during falling tide with strong current. Here, divers can expect to enjoy the spectacular shows performed by the manta rays.

They are found hovering all around the divers waiting to feed on the plankton in the strong current. If we can not dive in the Manta Ridge we will move to the cleaning station Manta Sandy and the mantas will get cleaned between two huge bommies. Then, Our third dive takes place in Yenbuba Jetty at Mansuar Island to encounter the weird wobeggong sharks. Then, we’ll stay the night at the bay between Kri and Mansuar. Island

Day 9. we’ll move to Cape Kri at the Northeast point of Kri island. Here, divers can find huge schools of big-eyed trevallies, barracudas, and snappers. You’ll also have a chance to see a dense school of sweetlips around the bommies. Grey reef sharks, groupers, pygmy seahorse can also be seen on this surprising dive site. Dawn and dusk are feeding time which means divers can witness an awe-inspiring diving moment.

Our second dive will take place in Chicken Reef (Karang Ayam) in the northeast of Kri Island, characterized with various soft and hard corals and some rock formations with numerous schooling fish to see. Next, we’ll explore Sardine Reef, in the north-east of the island of Kri in the Dampier Strait, a large underwater pinnacle, with great schools of fish block out the light: jacks, tuna, trevally, and wobbegongs and grey reef sharks. At the end of the day, we will do trekking on Kri Island.

Day 10. we’ll have an opportunity for one dive in the morning. Since this is going to be our last cruise day, you’ll have a plenty of time to dry your equipment on the way back home. Normally our guest always want to go to blue magic or different dive site around Kri Island.

On our way back, we will do a final briefing, exchanging emails and photos, and say farewells to the crew. The crew will organise a transportation to your hotel.