A Birthday Cruise to East of Flores

Trip report by Lynn Morton with photos by Lynn Morton, Dan Richards & James Rockafellow.

I never realized when I put together this charter that we would have so many birthdays. But can you imagine a better way to celebrate than having dinner under the stars with a birthday cake on the Seven Seas? It can certainly make for a memorable birthday.

Our group started in Bali with 10 days of diving and exploring. That was when we had our first birthday with Rocky's on Oct. 12th. We all got a present when Mt. Agung decided not to erupt and we had no snafus getting to Maumere on the 18th along with our last group member, Rebecca, joining us. For me, Michael, Dan, Sarah, David, Rob, & Natalie, it was great to be returning to the Seven Seas and seeing all the familiar faces. Our group of 14 divers and 2 snorkelers boarded filled with anticipation of the great times ahead of us. We capped our first night on the boat singing happy birthday to Dave. That was #2.

Diving began on Oct. 19 at Dambili Point. This was snorkeler Sarah's favorite spot because there was so much for them to see in the shallows with tons of brightly colored fish and nice corals. She and Natalie, our other snorkeler, spotted 2 blue ribbon eels, frogfish, and it was so clear they could even see nudibranchs. At Dambili, Deep Dive, and Crack Point, divers saw orangutan crabs, soft coral squat lobsters, bi-color and decorated dartfish, a large school of bannerfish, a patrolling blacktip, turtles, a yellow margin moray, and a beautiful white leaf scorpionfish.

It was perfect because it was Sarah's birthday that day. Our dive guides, Irwan, Jefrey, and Frengke prepared a special surprise for her next to one of the frogfish.

Testimonial

"Two flooded cameras, a 10 mm fisheye and a 60 mm micro lens could not make me sad for anything on this trip. The skill-full hands of Ardi rebuilding the Fisheye lens proves this is a class-act crew. Best service with Little John and food prepared by Nico and Hera leave me fat and happy. Mark was a great host and the dive guides and boatmen were fantastic. Can't wait to book another trip. Will miss you all."

Amy Parker (East of Flores, October 2015)

» Click here for more testimonials.

East of Flores - Sabine's Story

The East of Flores trip was a hit, both over the water and under the water. Moreover, the crew of Seven Seas really took care of everything: the personal diving equipment was always on the right dinghy…, the only thing you still had to put on yourself was the diving suit ;-). Quickly buckling up the air bottle and then dive in… dive into in a gorgeously colorful and intact coral world. Never before have I seen so many different types of hard and soft corals in this color variety and intensity! The sheer size of the gorgonians was indescribable by itself. And then, there is literally a Denise dwarf seahorse sitting in the branches that is not at all visible to the naked eye. Fortunately, the diving guides had magnifiers, so that we could locate the little critters to some extent. It is simply ingenious, what kind of creatures nature has produced.

Large fish such as black and white tip reef sharks or big tunas showed their faces now and then as well but the island world "East of Flores" also have other things to offer. Such as the dive site "Anemone City" close to Pura, for example. You dive into the water, and all you can see are anemones only. And that over hundreds of meters, as far as the eye can see…only anemones and their inhabitants, the anemonefishes in the largest variety of colors and sizes…just incredible.

Raja Ampat in March 2016: 15% Last Minute Discount

This is an invitation to you, dear fellow Raja Ampat fan. We're a mixed group of German & English speaking dive aficionados already counting down the days to boarding the MSY Seven Seas. What mixed means? Well, we're thick and thin juniors and seniors with much and not yet so much dive experience, who'd love to share this adventure with you! Can you make yourself available from 02/28 – 03/11/2016 to join us? Here's a detailed description for you (in English), or contact [email protected] directly by email / phone +49 (0) 8761 724 8050. He'll be happy to assist and hold your space(s)!

A Birthday Cruise to East of Flores

Testimonial

East of Flores - Sabine's Story

Raja Ampat in March 2016: 15% Last Minute Discount

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