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Komodo 2009 on Mermaid 1
On August 24 th we arrived on Mermaid1 in Benoa Harbour on Bali. The trip we have dreamed about for many years is about to begin. The expectations are very high and we are on a good start. The boat is great. The best cabin ever, the crew seems to be nice so if the diving is as good as expected we can't go wrong.

The boat
The best we have ever tried, and we have been on some good boats. Excellent food, very good diving guides. Thanks to PJ, Jerry, Sugi and Debbie. Amazing what they found for us. The thai crew was excellent. Always helpful with a big smile. The massage was great as well after a days diving. Finally the safety was in topclass with all the equipment you could expect.

The diving
We went on a 9 day safari. Starting of on Angel Reef on Moyo Island, moving to Satonda Reef and Sangeang on the way to Komodo. These reefs have excellent macrolife. The formula is 3 day dives and 1 night dive. In the north the watertemperature was a confortable 26 degrees celcius.
In Komodo we started out with a actionpacked dive on Takat Toko (Castle Rock). Fight a bit against the strong current and put your reefhook in place and enjoy the show. We had about 20 big Whitetip reefsharks cruising around with a couple of Grey reefsharks in the distance. Fantastic. We did the dive on the return to Bali with no currents. So less sharks, but got closer to the Grey reefsharks in the blue. A fantastic divesite. On to Crystal Rock which we also did twice. Amazing fish life. You could almost get lost in the schools of fusiliers. Sharks, Napoleons, Sweatlips, Turtles and Dolphins underwater on our first dive. Not bad. Moving down south to Rinca Island we hit colder water (22-23 degrees) and bad Viz (15 meters). However the macro dives in Horseshoe Bay are world class. Rhinopias, many many Nudibranc's, Pigmy Seahorses, Frogfish and a lot more. Don't miss the night dives. After 2 days with worldclass macro diving it was time to look for the bigger stuff. So off to the south of Komodo Island to Manta Alley. Bad viz (5-10 meters) but a Mola Mola on the cleaning station (at least 3 of us saw it). Manta Rays on all dives. Always a pleasure.
Then on to the north again with good visibility, warm water and beautiful reefs.
On the return trip we dives GPS point. Another colourfull reef. We were lucky to encounter 2 curious juvenile Grey reefsharks and a whole lot of marinelife.
1 of the final dives was a muck dive of Sumbawa. Fantastic variety of creatures. Very nice to see Seahorses again

In Summary the diving was great. The guides always put us in the right place. Made very good briefings (thanks PJ) and took the conditions into consideration. So even though that Komodo has a reputation for fierce currents, we never experienced any problems. The variety of Marine life is fantastic. The best we have tried. We highly recommend this trip for the more experienced diver and Mermaid 1 would be an excellent choice.

Topside
The landscape is another highlight. In the dry season it is dry. We did a couple of landtrips. The dragon walk on Komodo was not that interesting even though we saw 2 dragons at the Ranger station. The beach in Horseshoe Bay offered much better encounters in the wild. Also very nice to watch the wild Pigs and Eagles from the boat.

Conclusion
A trip with topclass diving, topclass crew, topclass boat and the other guests from around the globe were also topclass. A memorable trip, that we would like to repeat again (and again, and again).