Cruises are scheduled at the ideal times of the year and conditions should generally be good, except during long crossings or in open sea. The waters of the open sea sites are very deep and the sites mostly exposed to the weather.
Tropical weather, sunshine and nice sea breeze that can be windy at nighttime, light jacket is ideal.
The diving is varied and ranges from drift dives along walls, fringing reefs, roller coaster rides, volcanic rocks in the open sea, atolls, muck diving and a chance to explore new dive sites. This may not be the cruise for everyone but is definitively more for the adventurer who loves the feeling of pioneer diving. Current can be strong, depending on the tides and times although schooling fish tend to be more active when current is running.
Avg. 22° to 30°C
The WAOW staff will pick you up in your hotel or await your arrival at Kendari Airport to assist and accompany you on board SMY WAOW at Kendari harbour, only a short drive of around 20-30mins away. Our experienced staff will look after your luggage and transfer it to your cabin onboard SMY WAOW while you enjoy our "refreshing welcome drink". As soon as the last guests are onboard at 04:00pm, you will be introduced to our team and have plenty of time to settle in, get everything ready and enjoy life onboard with us.
Early breakfast befor disembarkation & transfer to the airport or hotel between 06.00am and 11.00am at the latest
Sulawesi is the huge "K" shaped Island that is dominated by four large peninsulas: the Semenanjung Minahasa, the East Peninsula, the South peninsula, and the South East Peninsula. At the southeast Peninsula, where the white sandy atolls spread into the turquoise coloured waters of the Flores Sea, the atolls rise sharply from the sides of a submerged ridge as a result of volcanic activity connected 2,000 meters below the surface, all the way to the Flores island chain. Positioned in the midst of a remote island archipelago group known to adventure travellers as Tukang Besi, home of the world famous dive destination – WaKaToBi – named after the first two letters of each of the four islands surrounding it, Wangi Wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia, and Binongko. The cruise starts from a small little port town – Kendari – on the southeastern peninsula of Sulawesi, where SMY WAOW will cruise straight out of the bay past mountainous islands all the way down to the third largest atoll in the world, Tukang Besi, a wide ring of coral. From north to south lay WaKaToBi with numerous atolls around – Karang Kaledupa on the west, Karang Maha on the east and Karang Koka on the southern end. WaKaToBi National Park itself offers more than 40 dive sites, most of them are beautiful and present a tremendously colourful cross-section of biodiversity, miles of pristine reef diving and a bountiful array of colourful tropical fishes. Flores Sea Atolls takes you from the southernmost tip of Sulawesi all the way past Komba, a very active volcano that still spits out fire to the heart of the Flores Sea, to the current sweeping straits of Alor in Nusa Tengara Timur. The cruise ends at the very beautiful bay of Maumere, where a lot of critters have their habitats. The Flores Sea Atoll offers a variety of diving from delightful walls with schooling reef fish to stunning volcanic rocks encrusted with soft & hard corals, sponges the size of humans and sea fans of 2 to 3 meters across. Some places feature whip corals stretching several meters, whole fields of them. In this location, there are miles of expansive coral reefs, so pristine, definitely some of the most beautiful and prolific dive sites. Far off the beaten path of tourism, it offers a supremely tropical vacation, truly a pioneer's dream. If you look hard enough you can find just about everything you desire in the Flores Sea Atolls.
SMY WAOW plans to have 5 full days of diving around this amazing national park, which has been well protected thanks to Lorenz Maeder, the Swiss founder of the now famous Wakatobi Dive Resort, established in 1996. Wakatobi's reefs are among the most diverse in the world. Wakatobi is blessed with nutrient – rich water that favors brightly colored soft coral, sponges and gorgonian sea fans over hard corals. Hard corals are very pristine but limited to the shallows, creating vivid reef scenery from the surface down to the deeper areas. From drift dives along the stunning walls, to muck dives with wonderful critters, Wakatobi has a lot to offer… Just about everything!
Komba is an active volcano in the Flores Sea with the smell of sulphur in the air when you are nearby. You'll find sheer walls and ridges all around the island with black volcanic sandy slopes up in the shallows. Colorful walls with soft coral, sea fans and encrusting sponges, lots of reef fish along the walls and out in the blue there's a good chance for bigger stuff like dogtooth tunas, mackerels, jacks, rays, turtles and reef sharks. Another highlight of Komba are the regular eruptions, which which turn the night sky into a spectacular natural firework display that can be witnessed from a safe distance.
The 3 inactive volcano islands in the Strait between Alor and Pantar make it a perfect combination for some world class diving, with vertical sheer walls, numerous small coves, a good mix of fresh water, slightly sloping silky sand with swift currents that bring so many nutrients in to the bay and provide shelter for critters that take habitat here. From colourful coral to rare pelagic and critters on the seabed, the bay of Alor has it all.
Beneath the towering Gunumg Api, an active volcano 1,450 metres above sea level to the north of Lembata island, are wonderful sites, dramatic sheer walls, plateaus with beautiful hard corals, overhangs, and black sand critter dives. It’s not uncommon to see predators like reef sharks swim along the reef.
The diving along the north coast of Adonara offers very nice gentle sloping coral reefs with quite a few coral bommies on sandy patches. Very good for critters; ornate ghost pipefish, pipefish, frogfish, seahorse, leaf scorpion fish, and ribbon eels. This area remains an opportunity to dive unexplored sites to reveal the Gems of Alor.
Maumere is a beautiful bay on the north coast of Flores. There is a wealth of macro life to keep any diver fascinated for hours. It’s this diversity that has also made Maumere a perfect place to finish our cruise
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