Seven Seas - East Indonesia Liveaboard
Newsletter January 2007

First of all, the best wishes for a successful and healthy 2007 to all of you travelers!

Special offer for this newsletter

The last cruises for the season in Raja Ampat in February and the first week of March have a special discount rate for last minute bookings. Look in our schedule for the special offer and contact [email protected] and [email protected] for details.

Our latest cruise

Our Christmas and new years cruise was very special to say the least. We were stuck in Makassar for one unexpected additional day due to unfortunate near crash of another airlines airplane. Back at the hotel, turkey and lamb roast was accompanied with Christmas carols from the sweetest Indonesia children choir, so in the end it was not too bad. Fortunately, when we did arrive at The Seven Seas, the crew picked us up at the airport, all our luggage made it, and within no time we were cruising into the Raja Ampat Islands. After a couple of hours, all was forgotten and we were all enjoying. Stew Esposito put the whole cruise on disk, a personalized collection of amazing pictures and underwater video, capturing the exact atmosphere of the cruise. Let us know if you want to purchase one of his many Seven Seas above and underwater impressions.

For those of you who have not been there yet, please consider signing up for the last minute options this year as we will be leaving this area in March to return to pelagic fish and critters in Komodo. This is what you would miss otherwise:

Blacktip reef sharks, Wobbegongs, Golden pearls at the farm, Baby hawksbill shooting away from under your kayak, packs of Bumphead parrots, the most gorgeous Nudibranches imaginable, Seasnakes growing out of their skin, huge Fish eagles fishing next to the boat, sashimi, Spanish dancers, 10 lobsters under a rock, dogtooth tuna on the line and grill, hot chocolate after dives, field of acropora acropora acropora, Napoleon wrasse...and much much more!

Seven Seas in the new year


  • Following the success of this years new year's cruise, the Raja Ampat schedule for October-December 2007 is filling up quickly. We will have some special photography cruises in September and as mentioned earlier, short cruises around Bali at the end of June.
  • In the new year, Seven Seas will have a couple of dive computers for rent for those who need them. We also have full dive sets available for the younger divers starting from age 12 years and up.
  • Stew Esposito will be turning back home in April to prepare his community swimming pool and run it for the season. You can still catch a cruise with him if you're quick.
  • We are planning another of the Seven Seas harbor parties on Sunday July 1 upon returning from a Bali short cruise. Let us know if you are around via [email protected] and you will be invited specifically to join an evening of good music and good wine!
  • Seven Seas started making its own bread in 2007 and has full laundry service.

Conservation

The government of Raja Ampat has agreed to establish a network of marine protected areas in the area, and on December 15, 2006 they pronounced 7 areas as new MPAs. The seven areas are Kofiau, Misool Timur Selatan, Waigeo Selatan, Teluk Mayalibit, Wayag, Sayang-Piai, and Ayau, covering an area of more than 550,000 ha or 30 percent of the Regency's waters.


(Click to enlarge)
The seven protected areas were designated by the Regent of Raja Ampat, Drs. Marcus Wanma, MSi, following a mandate given by the traditional leaders to the government to manage the region's seas for the welfare of the people. This mandate was approved by both the Ma'ya Traditional Leaders' Council and Traditional Community Institue Kalana Fat.

This is really good news for the reefs in R4 and the area can use all support to raise enough attention to the conservation plight, implementation of good practices for tourism to maintain its beauty.

We just received reports from the management of Komodo National Park that even though this Christmas was the year with lowest arrivals for Indonesia since 1992, a large number of visitors came to see the reefs and dragons of Komodo and contributed by paying the conservation fee to the protection of the park.

The Seven Seas - Kuta Poleng D7 - Jl. Setiabudi Simpang Siur - Kuta 80361 - Bali - Indonesia