Dive Review of MV Samambaia in
Indonesia/Banda Sea, Forgotten Islands

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MV Samambaia: "Remote Area Searching for Sharks", Oct, 2019, by Lisa C. Evans, CO, US ( Sr. Contributor 24 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 11702.
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 my second time on the Samambaia, which is a beautiful, comfortable boat. This itinerary is quite remote, and involves remote small islands, sea mounts, and conditions for advanced divers (changing currents, deep dives.) The first half of the trip was spent, in large part, looking for hammerheads, though that was complicated by poor visibility, and dive plans about staying out of the blue (except the DM, so the sharks wouldn't be spooked away) that were not followed. The corals were in great shape and lots of medium to medium-large fish, smaller fish, snakes and eels. With improving visibility on the second half of the itinerary, we saw more, though repeated a lot of dive sites. My divemaster must have been new, because my log includes frustration with him not following dive plans (with no reason), not being aware of his divers' whereabouts, and early safety stops. The other divemaster was better. In terms of sharks seen - options here at 1-2 or lots - it was somewhere in between. I have notes of seeing several hammerheads clearly, but several not clearly, and the other divemaster's group saw 30-50 when we didn't see any. But the emphasis on hammerheads got a little tiresome after a while, since with the viz they were hard to see, and divers kept dashing into the blue and scaring them away.
Websites	MV Samambaia
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 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, Sulawesi, etc
Closest Airport	Saumlaki	Getting There	Jakarta to Ambon to Saumlaki
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	79-82°F / 26-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	50-80 Ft/ 15-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	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	Camera room was pretty small, but convenient to the dive deck.

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Dive Review of MV Samambaia in Indonesia/Banda Sea, Forgotten Islands

MV Samambaia: "Remote Area Searching for Sharks", Oct, 2019,

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 MV Samambaia in
Indonesia/Banda Sea, Forgotten Islands