[ad_1] Byron Conroy has dived Raja Ampat by liveaboard before, but never in such abject luxury, and with the added benefit of a full-on spa on board. Scubaspa Zen, Indonesia certainly delivers Photographs by Byron Conroy Raja Ampat, the last paradise as its known, is every divers’ dream. I know of no other destination that
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Byron Conroy has dived Raja Ampat by liveaboard before, but never in such abject luxury, and with the added benefit of a full-on spa on board. Scubaspa Zen, Indonesia certainly delivers
Photographs by Byron Conroy
Raja Ampat, the last paradise as its known, is every divers’ dream. I know of no other destination that is as revered and talked about within the warm water dive community, it has a reputation like no other.
Famous for the most-diverse dive sites in the world, the most-abundant fish life, giant mantas and the healthiest coral reefs in the world.
I am lucky enough to have been there a few times in the past, but I had not been for several years due to the pandemic and the enforced closure of the borders. I was keen to see how well the area had faired with a lack of divers for a few years.
Raja Ampat is a huge area, and is usually explored by liveboard for that reason. The area is comprised of four main islands, the most famous of them being Misool in Southern Raja, however it’s around a 12-hour journey to get there depending on speed and weather. Liveaboards depart from the port town of Sorong on the mainland of West Paul.
With the increase in boats over the years, it’s now pretty easy to get to Sorong -Iflew in direct form Manado, but there are also international flights arriving also. Upon arriving in Sorong, I was greeted by Jack, resident guide on board the Scubaspa Zen, Indonesia vessel.
Jack immediately made me feel welcome as we chatted about diving on the short ride to the port, where we loaded the kit onto a tender to head out to the main vessel.
Scubaspa Zen is relatively new to Indonesia, however the company have a long history of operating luxury diving and spa vessels in the Maldives. They have two boats operating in the Maldives and have a fabulous reputation.
The premise of Scubaspa was very intriguing to me, they are bringing something new to the dive industry in Indonesia. The vessel itself is a traditional Indonesian-style wooden vessel but built to the highest standards possible.
I have been on quite a number of liveaboards all over the world, but this vessel is really very special in terms of luxury and fit. Nothing has been spared and every detail has been thought of.
Did you know?
Raja Ampat, which means “Four Kings”, is located in the West Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The ‘four kings’ are the islands Misool, Batanta, Waigeo and Salawati but the area is actually made up of 100+ islands, some of which are not inhabited.
The idea though is to combine diving with a luxury highend spa. On the top deck of the boat they have a full service spa along with two fully trained employees who can take care of any treatment you may wish on board.
This opens up diving trips to more people, it enables couples to go where one will dive and one will spa, or you have a combination of diving and spa, or as I chose to take a full diving package with three to four dives per day and then add in any massages or treatments at your convenience.
After boarding the vessel and being welcomed by the fulltime bar staff with cocktails and refreshing towels, we were shown to the rooms where we could relax and wait for the final guests to arrive before the usual introduction and safety briefings.
The cabins are just exceptional for a liveaboard, full queen-sized bed, luxury bathrooms, private AC, writing desk, sofa area, floor to ceiling wardrobes and all finished in wonderful local wood.
After a few hours relaxing on board and exploring the different levels on the boat, it was time to meet the rest of the guests and have a proper introduction to the boat crew and our expedition leader Dom, hailing from the UK.
Dom has been in Indonesia working in luxury diving all over Komodo and Raja Ampat for 12 years before joining Scubaspa in May 2022 to begin their Raja Ampat programme.
Dom is warm, funny and clearly used to working in the luxury market, he is accommodating and ensures the boat offers the best service possible, but in a relaxed manner without any pressure or pretence.
Dom explained how the vessel would run, meals, dive schedule, etc, and made sure to remind us that this was our trip and to let him know of anything we need.
We then settled in for dinner, both lunch and breakfast are buffet style with a chef always on hand to make fresh eggs, etc, and evening meals are a la carte with the menu presented earlier in the day for you to take your choice.
Dinner was steak, cooked to order, a wonderful butternut soup and a choice of different deserts. To be served a wonderful meal like this on day one in a great atmosphere was something special. Over dinner, it was nice to get to meet some of the other guests and discuss dive stories.
Overnight we sailed down to Misool in the South of Raja, this is the hardest to reach area of Raja Ampat and also the most well-protected.
The area is largely managed by a local island resort which limits the number of boats diving any one site on any day and also allocates times for each boat to dive each site based on their requests.
Now, Misool is famous for healthy coral reefs and mantas, but one of the reason for the health of the reefs and the manta population are the currents. Currents can be fierce, so having an expedition leader who understands the currents, tides and the dive sites is critical to ensuring you have a great trip.
Having chatted to Dom about out plans in Misool for the next few days, it was apparent that we had struck gold. Dom is the best of the best when it comes to having an intimate knowledge of the area and what time each dive site will be at its peak for both currents and action.
We began our diving with a site called Juliet, pretty famous in the area, a mushroom-shaped underwater island where the edge is filled with wonderful pink whip corals, red gorgonian fans and some bigger fish life in the blue.
Dom timed the checkout to perfection with almost no current on the site, it was perfect to get people settled in for what was to come. My guide Sammy was from Komodo and we immediately had fun underwater – it was such a pleasure to have a guide that was just loving being in the ocean.
He was a pleasure to dive with, constantly looking for cool things to see and being excited about every animal we saw.
So, in the afternoon, we dived Boo West, again timed to perfection by Dom with wonderful water conditions – given that we were diving in a week with a full moon, Dom had pulled a masterstroke. After a lovely dive, it was time for one of the most-famous sites in Misool, Boo’s Window.
Boo’s Window is another underwater island, we cruised down to around 18m where there were huge schools of fusiliers and snapper in blue and yellow colours, then began to head up towards the famous window, a reef shark crashed past us oblivious to our flapping around in comparison to his graceful path.
At around 5m, the current has created a large hole in the wall of the island allowing you to swim over a plateau at 5m, then directly through the window to the other side of the island.
As we made our way up the reef and towards the window, conditions were calm and mild – as we got halfway through the window, all of a sudden you could feel the power of the current that was rushing through the window and pushing into our faces.
All of the water that’s hitting the whole island is forced through this small hole, it was amazing to feel the power of the current. As we finally fought our way through to the either side it calmed again and I was able to turn and shoot the famous sea fan in the foreground with the window in the background.
Scubaspa has been operating in the Maldives for may years, and anyone who has dived there knows that instead of using small tender boats for the diving and keeping the equipment on the main vessel, the Maldives operators instead use a dhoni, this is effectively a separate vessel that is only used for diving.
Around 15 metres long, with a roof, this full vessel has its own crew and captain and follows the main boat when cruising to destinations, but all the dive equipment is kept on board always and all diving is done from the dhoni. Scubaspa Zen has implemented this in Raja also, becoming the first operator to do so.
This is such a bonus of diving with Scubaspa, it is a much better way of diving – no more bumpy tender rides in full equipment, no more pulling all the tanks back onto the tender, and the main vessel stays dry and has much more space as there is no dive equipment on board, no compressors running and noises of tanks being filled. It is all kept away from the main vessel.
This article was originally published in Scuba Diver UK #74.
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