East of Flores & Komodo Combination Trips 2019 & 2020

Starting in 2019, Seven Seas will be scheduling a number of Best of Both Worlds cruises combining East of Flores and Komodo itineraries, picking our favorite sites during the right seasons! On the Maumere to Labuan Bajo cruises we will visit the top sites of our East of Flores itinerary first, including the fabulous dives around Pulau Rusa and South Pantar, before heading West via Lembata over the top of Flores, via some great atoll dives, past Pulau Raja and into Komodo National Park where the trip will end after visiting the most stellar sites that area has to offer, North and South of the Park. On the Labuan Bajo to Maumere versions we do something similar, the other way around! :)

» PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THESE TRIPS

Banda Sea Video by Linda Johnston

Look what we just discovered... A brilliant Banda Sea video by Linda Johnston which - for unknown reasons - didn't make it to our website (it's there now).

Click here to watch video

By the way, our next available Banda Sea trip (Ambon to Ambon) is from 16 to 28 April 2019. Please contact us if you are interested.

Paradise on the Edge - Raja Ampat to the Spice Islands

Trip report by Tony Pigott. Photos and manta video by David Pincus.

It was day three anchored just off the coast of West Papua in the idyllic Raja Ampat archipelago that we got our wake up call. My wife and I were among 12 very fortunate divers on board the Seven Seas, a one hundred foot Iron wood trading Pinisi built in Makassar and tricked out for anything a diver could wish for. On this still early morning the world seemed undeniably perfect and problem free. But then it happened; on our first dive, 40 feet down, kneeling on the sandy bottom, peering through windex water and back lit by morning sun. An immense Ocean Manta appeared, at first like a ghost ship then floated above us, blocking out the sun. It turned and hovered while a trio of Black Rays looking very like stealth bombers soared in from our left drifting past in a silent fly by.

I defy anyone to see this and not feel a rush of awe and anxiety in equal measure. How could such creatures exist? How long do they have? And what is the future for this corner of the world; the Coral Triangle, home to more than 400 coral and 600 fish species; a migratory route for whales and turtles and big pelagic; the Amazon of the ocean in the words of UNESCO? An encounter with Mantas shakes you up. It forces you to look around and ask questions.

The big picture is not pretty. According to the UN, 90 percent of the world's fisheries are depleted or facing collapse. Coral forests are bleaching across Australia's Great Barrier Reef because of warming water. So, what of this remote ocean treasure chest? Is there any hope even on a small scale?

» CLICK HERE FOR TONY'S FULL ARTICLE AND MORE PHOTOS

Remaining Availability 2018

Final chances for three great trips:

• 2018 June 3 to 14, Komodo National Park, 11 nights, 8 spots available.
• 2018 September 8 to 20, Komodo National Park, 12 nights, 8 spots available.
• 2018 October 7 to 19, East of Flores OR Komodo OR Savu. Full boat available.

These three trips are all in the best possible months to cruise Nusa Tenggara Timur. The October trip is still flexible to make a customized itinerary for a like minded group.

Email us for a special deal on any of these remaining 2018 trips!

Mystery Tour of Coastal West Papua - March 2019

Join Dr. Lawrence Blair and Captain Mark Heighes for an UNUSUAL EXPLORATORY CRUISE off the West Coast of Indonesian NEW GUINEA and the Southern RAJA AMPAT ISLANDS, aboard The Seven Seas.

12 nights, from March 3rd to 15th 2019. Fakfak to Sorong.

The Seven Seas is the Indonesian live aboard most frequently chartered by international marine biologists for scientific surveys, which enables her to break entirely new ground. Such a survey is taking place on the cruise prior to ours by Conservation International scientists to tag the recently discovered whale sharks in this region. Our cruise would be retracing their itinerary back to Sorong, amongst the worlds richest dive waters, with a good chance of swimming amongst these largest and most docile of the world's fish.

» MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS SPECIAL CRUISE

An Experience of a Lifetime

Trip report by Tori Zirinsky.

On December 23 I embarked on the Seven Seas, ready for an experience of a lifetime. My travel companions, my brother, our mum and her partner, had made this trip before in 2015 and raved about it upon their return. In an attempt to recreate the trip, my mum and her partner took me on a live-aboard in Myanmar. In no way did that prepare me for the outstanding trip aboard the Seven Seas.

The experienced and always friendly crew greeted us before Director Karl briefed the total of 13 passengers. Our first dive of the trip exhibited the high level of skill of the dive guides Irwan and Sadat.

The second day of the trip, anchored around the island of Misool, proved an outstanding day of diving, which I would soon learn was to be standard of the entire trip. The dives throughout this region and others including in the Dampier Strait and Waigeo were simply stunning; the mantas and mobulas, Cephalopods, Crustaceans, pygmy seahorses, translucent shrimp and mantis shrimp, reef fish, schooling fish, turtles, lionfish, moray eels, barracudas, sharks, nudibranchs, pipefish, scorpionfish, crocodilefish and many others, not mentioning the gorgeous reef with magnificent hard and soft corals.

The luxurious boat provides spaces to read, chat, sunbathe or chill out. It is a total detox from life. The variety and high standard of food satisfied even the pickiest of eaters. I know that this experience has spoiled me as no other live aboard can compare. It was during this trip that I celebrated my 18th birthday among much pomp and fanfare from the crew. What a way to enter adulthood.