Dive Review of Blue Manta in
Indonesia/Banda Sea

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Blue Manta: "Excellent diving, but no hammerheads", Nov, 2022, by Catherine May, ON, CA ( Reviewer 5 reports with 4 Helpful votes). Report 12292 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
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Blue Manta Banda Sea 9 Day Liveaboard The boat was definitely one of the best we have been on. Cabins were thoughtfully laid out including large open wall unit for luggage storage, clothing, laundry hamper, spacious bathroom with separate shower, queen & double bed, desk, lots of outlets for electronics, & hooks for hanging clothes. The rooms were virtually sound proof with heavy doors & had a smoke detector & life jackets. There was a separate spacious climate-controlled camera room with individual desks & outlets. Plenty of room for all. The crew looked after our gear, helping us remove it, & doing all the rinsing & hanging up. We just need to show up. We found out on the drive from the airport to the boat, we wouldn’t be seeing schooling hammerheads, as the marketing materials indicated. Apparently, the best time is mid-September to mid-October. This was of course, disappointing, but not the end of the world. The diving, in fact, was spectacular. Beautiful healthy hard & soft corals, large schools of fish, & visibility usually over 100 feet. The group consisted of 19 divers with 6 dive masters, resulting with mainly 3 divers per group, only 1 group of 4. Our DM, Moses, was wonderful, setting a nice easy pace, taking the time to point out critters of particular interest, including pygmy seahorses  The food was definitely geared to the Asian palette with lots of noodles, rice, seafood, etc. Being from Canada, we would have appreciated more Indonesia & North American fare. We especially missed the desserts & treats typically offered on other boats & got very tired of bananas prepared in multiple ways. All the staff worked together like a well oiled machine. Sedric, the cruise director, has built a hardworking team who really cared about providing a fun & safe environment. There are 2 suggestions I made to him at the end of our trip: 1. He commented that there are a few people who miss the connecting flight to Ambon every trip. We had more than 90 minutes & still missed it, not knowing that after getting our Visitor’s Visa & going through customs, we had to collect our luggage, take a bus to another terminal, & check back in. There is a later flight available that we could have taken had we known. Unfortunately, there was only 1 seat available by the time we knew we missed our original flight. We spent 6 hours rushing around from 1 terminal to the next, texting the boat, & trying to find a hotel since the next available flight was 24 hours after the first one. This all resulted in a lot of stress & a lot of extra expense – taxis, purchase of new flights, hotel, meals, & then paying for a speedboat to meet up with the mother ship. We missed the welcome on board briefing & the first few dives. 2. I developed a nasty ear infection from the mandarin fish dive we did in a filthy harbour in front of a small village. Ear drops didn’t help, so I added an oral antibiotic, & it continued to get worse. I did some research (I’m a pharmacist) & determined that recent rain had washed sewage into the harbour, & likely my infection was due to a hard to treat bacteria which required a 2nd antibiotic. I missed the last day of diving on this boat & the 1st 2 days of diving on the 2nd boat all because of diving in sh*t. Something that could have been prevented by rinsing my ears immediately after the dive & instilling antibiotic drops. I am not prone to ear infections & the cruise director said every week divers get them on this trip. WTF??? Why not be proactive & do something to prevent it???
Websites	Blue Manta
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Komodo, Bali, Palau, Hawaii, Maldives, Caribbean, Mexico, USA, Canada
Closest Airport	Ambon	Getting There	International flight to Jakarta, then domestic to Ambon. Need minimum of 3 hours between flights. Missed connection due to lengthy process of Visitor Visa, customs, picking up luggage, travel to different terminal, then checking back in
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, currents
Water Temp	86-86°F / 30-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Had to ascend as a group.
Liveaboard?	no	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	N/A
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

Subscriber's Comments

By Lori Ann Krushefski in NY, US at Dec 05, 2022 17:28 EST

Hi—I’ve done that filthy mandarin fish dive, too, but got lucky and didn’t get an infection. The entire time I was diving, I thought, “Don’t let water in your mask, don’t let water in your mask…” I’m interested in your prophylactic idea. Would it be rinsing with alcohol/vinegar ear brew, then using oflaxacin drops? Would you also throw a Cipro or two down for good measure?

By report author: Catherine May in ON, CA at Dec 06, 2022 02:56 EST

Hey Lori Ann! So great to hear from you :) I was even wearing a hood :( I would rinse my ears thoroughly in a fresh water shower with soap & then instil Polysporin Ear Drops or any other antibiotic ear drop available. Since the infection was external, oral antibiotics would not have been necessary. There are also ear plugs that people use to help equalize & help prevent infection: www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0054MXWH2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 If I had only known! ~CM

By Lori Ann Krushefski in NY, US at Dec 06, 2022 22:30 EST

Thanks a million, Catherine! Geez, when I first read the review I somehow didn't connect your name with you! Doh!

By Lori Ann Krushefski in NY, US at Dec 06, 2022 22:30 EST

Thanks a million, Catherine! Geez, when I first read the review I somehow didn't connect your name with you! Doh!

By report author: Catherine May in ON, CA at Dec 07, 2022 13:21 EST

Ha! And here I thought you were stalking me ;)

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Dive Review of Blue Manta in Indonesia/Banda Sea

Blue Manta: "Excellent diving, but no hammerheads", Nov, 2022,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Blue Manta in
Indonesia/Banda Sea