Master Suite

Staterooms 2/3

Stateroom 4

Route Description - Banda Sea & Alor (Maumere - Ambon)

This 10-day diving expedition aboard Adelaar begins in Maumere, North Flores, and explores some of Indonesia's most diverse underwater landscapes. Highlights include diving the seamounts off Adonara, spotting hammerhead sharks in Pantar, and exploring Pura's anemone carpets. Discover marine life in Wetar, sea snakes around Gunung Api, and the pelagic-rich Lucipara Archipelago. In South Ambon and Laha, enjoy world-renowned muck diving sites filled with rare critters. The journey offers a mix of stunning coral reefs, pelagic encounters, and unique macro dives, concluding in Ambon.

DAY 1 MAUMERE
After boarding Adelaar in Maumere in the North of Flores, you will enjoy your first day on board whilst cruising eastwards along the Flores coast.

DAY 2 ADONARA
The submerged seamounts off Adonara are covered by a diverse mix of hard and soft corals. They provide shelter for a variety of reef fish and attract bigger predators such as jacks, tunas, and black tip and grey reef sharks. Juvenile silvertip sharks are often seen patrolling the typically clear blue water.

DAY 3 PANTAR
We start the day with an adrenalin filled dive with the objective to see schooling hammerhead sharks, followed by a second morning dive on a stunning wall that is covered so completely in soft corals that we might get a sensory overload. The afternoon and night dive take place on a patch reef that is well known for harboring rhinopias. After the afternoon dive, we let the locals show us around their picturesque village.

DAY 4 PURA
Today's diving takes us on a unique site that is dominated by sheer endless carpets of anemones and regularly visited by thresher sharks and mola molas, a spectacularly beautiful hard coral reef, where one of the attractions is observing local freediving fishermen and a impressive big overhang where critters such as clown frogfish, pontohi seahorses or halimeda ghost pipefish can be found.

DAY 5 WETAR
After a night's crossing we arrive in the morning in the Moluccas! We are diving the walls and slopes of Reong and Wetar. Depending on the prevailing current they can be very rich in fish. Grey reef sharks, bamboo sharks, giant trevally, schooling big eyed jacks, rainbow runners and tunas are often seen here. On the quieter dives there are areas completely covered in zebra anemones. With a bit of luck, we may spot the beautiful but rare leopard shrimp that lives in symbiosis with them.

DAY 6 GUNUNG API
Gunung Api means simply volcano in Indonesian. It is an old, lonely volcano that arises from the depth of the Banda sea. It attracts a huge colony of resident seabirds above the waves, while under water the island is home to schools of jacks, surgeonfish, tunas, barracudas and other pelagic fish species - as well as a lot of sea snakes. These venomous but unaggressive reptiles can be encountered on each dive around Gunung Api, sometimes in great numbers, which makes these dives absolutely unique.

DAY 7 LUCIPARA MAISEL ARCHIPELAGO
The Lucipara archipelago consists of several uninhabited low profile sandy islands with lush tropical vegetation. At the edge these huge coral shallows plunge steeply into the typically crystal-clear abyss of the Banda Sea. Diving these remote locations has by definition an exploratory character - their location in the middle of the deep sea with no other islands around is very inviting for passing pelagics to hang around, thus increasing chances of close encounters between divers and bigger species such as tunas, rainbow runners, thresher sharks, silky sharks or hammerhead sharks.

DAY 8 LUCIPARA PENYU ARCHIPELAGO
Similar kind of diving to yesterday spoils us today. Apart from the chances to see pelagics other strong points of these dives are the general healthiness and sheer vastness of the reefs. Some of the walls and steep slopes are studded with luxuriant soft coral growth, in other parts the landscape is dominated by huge barrel sponger or immense sea fans. The shallows are mainly intact hard coral gardens inhabited by myriads of different species of reef fish.

DAY 9 SOUTH AMBON
After two morning dives on the exposed south coast of Ambon island that are both stunning from a topographical and coral cover point of view, we enter Ambon Bay where we will go hunting for critters. Thorny seahorses, ornate ghost pipefish, rhinopias, frogfish and ribbon eels are just a few examples to illustrate the extraordinarily rich muck diving of Ambon Bay.

DAY 10 LAHA
Laha's muck diving sites are world renowned. Apart from a plethora of nudibranchs, cephalopods, ambon scorpionfish and different species of leaf scorpionfish, Laha is also famously the only place in the world where - with some luck! - the beautifully weird psychedelic frogfish may be spotted.

DAY 11 AMBON
After a last delicious breakfast, it is time to say goodbye and disembark - until the next time.

(Itinerary might vary depending on weather and sea conditions)

Booking Conditions / Additional Costs / Marine Park Fees

Cancellations for Individual and Group Bookings: All cancellations must be made by fax or e-mail. The date that ADELAAR receives the cancellation of the booking by e-mail or fax is the date used to determine the cancellation penalty.

Cancellation penalties for individual bookings:
More than 61 days prior to departure: forfeit of deposit. Less than 60 days prior to departure: 100% of the individual cruise price.

Cancellation penalties for group bookings:
More than 91 days prior to departure: forfeit of deposit.
Less than 90 days prior to departure: 100% of the group charter price.
Once an add-in Diving Komodo Itinerary becomes fully booked and closed for further bookings, no refunds will be given for cancellations. This information will be posted on our webpage schedule, as fully booked. Individual guests are responsible for checking the website prior to any cancellation.
A passenger who has booked into a scheduled Bali to Komodo trip, and who wishes to cancel, has the option to substitute another person (not already scheduled on the trip) into his space to avoid the cancellation penalty. Passenger substitution will be allowed up to three days prior to departure.
ADELAAR will not refund any money to passengers who fail to show for boarding on the trip departure date, whether this is due to missed airline connections or from the lack of proper paperwork required to enter the country, or any other reason. If an airline connection is missed, ADELAAR will make all efforts to arrange that the passenger can join the ADELAAR at some point in the itinerary. However, the cost to do so (airfare, small boat transport to ADELAAR, or any other cost involved) is solely the responsibility of the client.
If the customer interrupts or cuts short a trip for any reason, ADELAAR is not liable to refund any money to the customer. In cases of emergency such as personal illness or accident, ADELAAR will assist in all necessary arrangements for the passenger’s return travel. However, the cost of this is to be borne solely by the passenger.
For these reasons we strongly recommend the purchase of trip interruption insurance and/or trip cancellation insurance.

Please note: Marine park fees, surcharges etc can change and we cannot be held liable for differences in on-board surcharges. These will be confirmed at the time of booking