Raja Ampat Liveaboard Trip Report 2019-2020 Season

Diving Raja Ampat remains truly remarkable, despite the environmental pressures and more liveaboard boats in the region. Here’s my detailed Raja Ampat liveaboard trip report.

Soft coral overhang, Four Kings, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Here’s a site by site rundown of my 7 day Raja Ampat liveaboard on Damai 2 between 6-12 December 2019. (If you’re diving Raja Ampat in 2020, this is a good primer on the sites you’re likely to visit). I tried to get a decent photo from every dive… with variable results. Hopefully it gives a flavour of what we saw and the different environments.

Diver with corals, Andiamo, Raja Ampat

Day 2 – 7 December

Dive 1: Andiamo

Two pinnacles separated by a channel and it was super, super fishy – schooling everywhere. Great viz. Big school of barracuda in the channel, yellow snapper, glass fish and a big school of bat fish

Glassfish and fan coral, Candy Store, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Dive 2: Candy Store

Lozenge-like sloping rock with a bite taken out of it which forms a channel where fusiliers and barracuda etc school – loads of red fans and yellow elephant ear corals.

Candy store kind of similar to first site – like the fish had followed us. Felt amazing to see so many fish on two consecutive dives.Dived these sites last year with no real memory – this time weather and sun and viz much better so seeing them at their best.

Barracuda schooling, Yilliet Kecil, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Dive 3: Yelliet Kecil

Terrible viz but loads to see. Dropped in on a big school of barracuda in 6 metres.
Big schools of fish running around … jacks and fusiliers… turtle chomping away on the coral.

Baby black manta ray, Magic Mountain, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Day 2: 8th December

Dive 1: Magic Mountain

Gloomy mountain, more like – viz not great and little light. But it was breakfast time – whipcrack of fusiliers, trevally and jacks whirling around each other on the top of the plateau.

Remarkable for a brief encounter with a dolphin and her baby. They were cruising the edge of the drop-off together – initially I thought it was a shark due to the poor viz and then a while later had a brief face to face encounter with them as we rounded the same rock.

Manta ray finally turned up – baby black manta weaving through 11 divers unphased by the bubbles. Came back on the other side of the mountain as we did the safety stop.

Diver in Boo Window, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Dive 2: Boo Windows

Even though the central pillar fell out in 2018, Boo Window is still photogenic. Along the sloping wall it was a sky full of fish. Viz was poor through – that kind of gloom I can’t really see very well. A little disappointing compared to previous times but can’t control the visibility.

Glassfish clustered around soft corals, Nudi Rock, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Dive 3: Nudi Rock

Slope with lots of fans. Super fishy with lots of little fish around – schooling inside bommies for shelter. Viz not great again.

Pook surfacing at Nudi Rock, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Nudi Rock, incidentally, is not called Nudi Rock because you can find a lot of nudibranches there but because it is a rock that looks unarguably like a nudi. See above.

Coral bommie and glassfish cyclone, Four Kings, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Day 3: 9 December

Dive 1 and 2 : Four Kings

Just fantastic on both dives. Mild current, great viz and so much action around these four pinnacles. There’s supposedly a manta station at the deepest fourth pinnacle but no show there – didn’t matter. The 30 metre viz revealed a blanket of glass fish seemingly stretching over the entire dive site, diaphanously undulating (look it up) in the sun drenched water.

Progressing from the shallowest pinnacle to the deepest, with huge corals piled on each other every inch of the way, the elbow of the dive site forms a real-life fish bowl – fusiliers, jacks, barracudas, glass fish all schooling here together en masse in one compact area. So good we dived it twice and frankly worth the price of admission alone.

Soft corals in the shallows, Tank Rock, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Dive 3: Tank Rock

Sister to neighbouring Nudi Rock, Tank Tock has a similar topography – steep slope – murky most of the dive the usual fans etc. Last 10 minutes the best in the shallows – viz cleared up, warm water, zebra fish eveywhere and soft corals clinging to the pinnacle as it went above water.

Reefscape, Three Sisters, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Day 5: 10 December

Dive 1: Three Sisters Island

Murky and quiet reef to begin with – strong current rushing around the rock making it difficult to go beyond the main slope so zig zag pattern up there. Nice fans and bommie at the corner. Baby barracuda, mantis shrimp, turtle.

Fish swimthrough, No Contest, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Dive 2: No Contest

Towering vertical rock with a huge u-shape taken out of it and a cluster of fan corals at its base – Lord of the Rings-esque. The U-shape acts as a channel for hundreds of fish to swarm through in the current.

Around the rock there’s plenty of soft coral tenaciously clinging on to the rock and a nice photogenic hole which acts as a fish swim through.

Diver photographing batfish, Two Tree Island, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Dive 3: Two Trees Island

Murky but still amazing. Topographically a sloping rock. Back to my favourite corner with the gorgeous sea fans. Crocodile fish immobile beneath a soft coral. Batfish in the blue for the perfect safety stop.

Cruise overnight to get to…

Diver over lettuce corals, Melissa’s Garden, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Day 6: 11 December

Dive 1: Melissa’s Garden

One of my all time favourite dive sites anywhere. This is Finding Nemo reef made real. Plate and fan corals piled on each other like the crockery dropped by a giant. Barracuda in the blue at 6 meters. Black tip sharks cruising the shallows.

Diver over endless corals, Melissa’s Garden, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Quite strong current but gorgeous viz. Life everywhere amongst the corals stretching unbroken and piled high across the plateau. Viz still amazing on exit with the whole dive site visible below.

Piyanemo Viewpoint, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Piyanemo Viewpoint

The famous view that’s now synonymous with Raja Ampat. Walk up 300 steps up a well constructed wooden staircase. Shady but super hot at the top so take hat and sunscreen. And charge your phone battery for photos! Can have young coconut from the locals too.

Damai 2 liveaboard with Damai 1 liveaboard in the background, Raja Ampat © Chris Mitchell

Damai 2’s older sister boat Damai 1 had also arrived at Piyanemo at the same time so we could get both of them together in the obligatory romantic liveaboard photo. I’ve been on both Damai 1 and Damai 2 before and they continue to maintain excellent standards – no complaints at all about the boat, the staff, the food or the service – all were excellent.

Dive 2: Arborek Pier

The jetty itself is a sad sight – there’s great photos of it covered in soft coral and suffused in glass fish – but in reality there are a couple of isolated soft corals on bare poles. The saving grace – and main attraction – is a school of jacks that circle around and inbetween the poles.

Giant clams are all over the sloping reef below the pier. Half a metre to a metre long, grouped together. The reef itself has a few coral growing structures and there some nice bommies on the white sand. The night dive here found a blue ring octopus.

Day 7: 12 December

Blue Magic

Submerged sea mount. Shallowest part 8 metres. Great viz. Strongish current so you have to hide down below the top of the mount. Big school of jacks playing at the top. Lots of coral which you could see had been blasted by current. Big fat blacktip amongst barracuda in the blue. Wobbegong and sweet lips.

Miskion

The last dive of the trip. Very shallow. Gorgeous shallow dive along a reef with tons of sponges and hard corals at 1 to 3 metres amazing snorkelling spot – I swam into the current to the corner to see lots of fish. Big bommies with soft corals hanging from them. The colours of the corals reflected in the ocean’s surface.

Raja Ampat Liveaboard Route

The trip followed the now-standard 7 day Sorong to Sorong Raja Ampat itinerary, focusing mainly on the Misool region and then coming back up near to the Dampier Strait (see map).

For practicalities about getting to Sorong and what else to expect from diving Raja Ampat, see my Diving Raja Ampat: A Quick Guide page.

Raja Ampat Dive Site List

Here’s a complete list of the dive sites we visited, including the night dive sites which I didn’t do (saving my energy for the day dives… or possibly drinking Bintang).

#	Date	Site Name	Site Area	GPS Point		Terrain
1	06-Dec	Matan	Warir	00'57.548 S	131'08.456 E	Sloping Reef
2	07-Dec	Andiamo	Daram	02'05.895 S	130'51.361 E	Pinnacle, Wall
3	07-Dec	Candy Store	Daram	02'06.270 S	130'52.361 E	Wall, Slope
4	07-Dec	Yilliet Kecil	Yilliet	02'11.228 S	130'35.639 E	Sloping Reef, Wall
5	07-Dec	Romeo	Yelliet	02'11.757 S	130'36.620 E	Night Dive
6	08-Dec	Magic Mountain	Warakaraket	02'15.559 S	130'38.881 E	Seamount
7	08-Dec	Boo Window	Boo	02'13.267 S	130'36.691 E	Ridge
8	08-Dec	Nudi Rock	Fiabacet	02'13.146 S	130'33.708 E	Wall/Ridge
9	08-Dec	Dunia Kecil	Wayil	02'12.385 S	130'25.270 E	Nightdive
10	09-Dec	4 Kings	Waiylbatan	02'12.497 S	130'22.671 E	Pinnacle
11	09-Dec	4 Kings	Waiylbatan	02'12.497 S	130'22.671 E	Pinnacle
12	09-Dec	Tank Rock	Fiabacet	02'13.106 S	130'33.908 E	Ridge/Pinnacle
13	09-Dec	Wagmab Bay	Farondi	02'00.249 S	130'38.302 E	Nightdive
14	10-Dec	3 Sisters	Farondi	02'00.170 S	130'38.376 E	Wall, Sloping Reef
15	10-Dec	No Contest	Balbulol	02'01.584 S	130'41.431 E	Pinnacles
16	10-Dec	2 Tree Island	Sagof	02'01.744 S	130'44.062 E	Wall/Slope
17	11-Dec	Melissa's Garden	Penemu	00'35.299 S	130'19.074 E	Slope
18	11-Dec	Arborek Jetty	Mansuar	00'33.743 S	130'31.201 E	Jetty, Sloping Reef
19	11-Dec	Arborek Jetty	Mansuar	00'33.743 S	130'31.201 E	Nightdive
20	12-Dec	Blue Magic	Dampier Strait	00'30.414 S	130'44.290 E	Seamount
21	12-Dec	Mioskon	Dampier Strait	00'29.840 S	130'43.627 E	Sloping Reef

Raja Ampat Diving Guides and Info

For an overview of what to expect when diving Raja Ampat and useful tips on how to get there and what to bring with you, see our Diving Raja Ampat: A Quick Guide and listen to the Divehappy podcast episodes on Raja Ampat. Misool Eco Resort and Triton Bay. For practicalities on getting there, see How To Get To Raja Ampat, Sorong Airport Guide and the Liveaboard Packing List

Raja Ampat Liveaboard Trip Reports

Triton Bay Trip Reports (as part of Raja Ampat liveaboard trips)

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