World Class
Scuba Diving

A note from Alan Raabe ....

If you are planning to join us on FeBrina or Star Dancer, I would just like to go over the different itineraries we do at different times of the year and the reasons behind this.

North Coast New Britain itineraries .....

Let's start with the weather conditions in a normal year on the North coast of New Britain in Papua New Guinea.

January, February and March on the North Coast of New Britain is our monsoon season with north westerly winds. From mid-December to mid-January is usually a change over period, i.e. from doldrums (light and variable wind) to north westerly winds and rain. March is a change over period and April is normally a prime month.

So the best times to visit us for a North coast itinerary is between April and November, when we can offer a pretty damned special and diverse dive experience.

Walindi/Walindi North Coast itineraries take in Kimbe Bay, Witu Islands and Fathers Reefs. The best times to do this itinerary are April and May through to mid June, and September, October and November. This itinerary is usually set for 10 nights and eight and a half days diving (although different duration trips can be organized for groups). The diving includes the feminine reefs of Kimbe Bay with gardens of fan corals,sea whips, and every other variety of coral you can think of, plus an astounding reef fish and invertebrate population which is great for both wide angle and macro photographers.

Then normally heading in a clockwise direction, we travel to the Witu Islands to the north west of Kimbe Bay, which is also very diverse diving suitable for both wide angle and macro photographers. Witu Islands has great black sand beaches and depending on the water temperatures, we get different sorts of critters at different times of year. Our signature dive in this area is Krakafat (Lama Shoals) which features a huge school of jacks and barracuda. Many divers would concur that it is the best dive of it's kind that they have ever done. It is a hard one to beat.

From Witu Islands, we then head in an Easterly direction to the Father's Reef system. "The Father" is a large extinct volcano underwater and we dive the outer edges of the crater. I describe these reefs as "masculine", as compared to Kimbe Bay's "feminine" reefs. As these are oceanic reefs at Father's, the visibility is quite good to excellent 95% of the time. This is where we get most of our pelagic activity, from sharks, dog tooth tuna and barracuda through to a group of spinner dolphins that I have been "training" for 21 years, somewhat like "training" a group of teenagers (or maybe they have been training me). They are around 70% of the time and we get to snorkel with them for half an hour.

Our signature dive at Fathers is Kilobob's. We always do two dives here on the morning of our last day in the Father's reefs area. This is quite a sharky dive with schools of barracuda and jacks. From Kilobob's, we start the steam back towards Kimbe Bay, skipping the third dive of the day. Depending on the weather conditions, we may stop to dive a sea mount on the way back into Kimbe Bay (Walindi Reefs) at around 14:00 and then head for Restorf Island. Arriving at Restorf at around 17:00 enables us to do a dusk dive or a night dive depending on the diver.

Normally a Walindi/Walindi trip would start with one to two days on the Walindi reefs in Kimbe Bay, head to Witus for two to three days, overnight steam to Father's Reefs for three to four days and then back into Walindi Reefs for either one and a half, or half a day, depending on where the diving is optimal.

We have structured our diving schedule to maximize your diving time while you are in Papua New Guinea, and believe me, you will want to dive on ALL the dives. On all our trips, first dive of the day is at 6:30am with a time limit on this dive of one hour, working up an appetite for a hearty breakfast on return from the dive. If you need to eat before you dive, a continental breakfast is available from 5:30 onwards. Second dive is at 09:00 which then allows us another dive before lunch at 13:00. This gives you the opportunity, although not compulsory, to do three dives before lunch. Normally we would do wide angle in the morning and macro in the afternoon. This all depends on the group of divers on board, of course.... i.e. if the group is more macro and critter inclined, then we will do two wide angle dives as the first two dives and the third dive as macro.

Lunch is usually around 13:00, then we have a siesta and the afternoon dive is at 15:30. Sometimes we may do this dive at 15:00 if we are traveling at night and need the extra time. As we have no twilight in Papua New Guinea, it is dark at 18:30 which enables us to do our night dive before dinner. If we are doing a night steam, we do not do the night dive. This means that you only miss out on two night dives on a normal trip.

On the last day, we finish diving at midday, allowing for three dives in the morning. Those divers with an early morning flight the following morning may decide to stop diving after the second dive.

So, as an example, if your trip is September 14-24 (10 nights/8.5 days diving), the trip departs on September 14, boarding the boat from 16:00 and departure at approx. 18:00 (depending on the flight schedule on the day). The first dive is schedules for 06:30 the following morning. Diving will finish by mid day on September 23, and disembarkation is in the morning of September 24. For Walindi/Walindi itineraries, the boat returns to Walindi wharf in the afternoon of September 23 and we can organise a land tour for the afternoon of Sep 23 for those who would like to do so (at an extra cost). Dinner on the last night (Sep 23 in this example) is a barbeque at Walindi Resort with the boat supplying the wine for dinner. Other beverages would be purchased from the Walindi bar. For those guests departing on the early morning flight the following morning, we will arrange for early airport transfer as necessary and a light continental breakfast will be supplied on this departure morning.

Rabaul-Walindi and Walindi-Rabaul itineraries are scheduled from mid June through to end of August. These are generally 9 night/7.5 dive day trips and the reason we change itineraries at this time of year is because this is when we generally experience South Easterly trade winds. As all of the good diving in the Witu Islands is open to the South East, we drop Witus off the itinerary and replace with diving in the Rabaul area at this time. We get protection from the South East on the Gazelle Peninsula (Rabaul) and Father's Reefs area is also protected by the high mountain range running along the middle of New Britain. The Rabaul area is quite exciting. Although not as "fishy" as Father's Reefs, it has some very beautiful reef and spectacular critters.

There are certain areas in Papua New Guinea where two seas meet and this appears to produce unusual and wonderful "critter" life. Milne Bay (where the Coral Sea meets the Solomon Sea) and Kavieng (where the Bismarck Sea meet the Pacific Ocean) are two of these areas. Rabaul is another such area, where the Solomon Sea meets the Bismarck Sea.

Our signature dives in the Rabaul area are not wide angle by any means, but Sandra's Jetty and Nonga Beach have astounding critter life. From frogfish, ghost pipefish of all flavours, seahorses and flying gunards, to nudibranchs of every shape, size and description, these two reefs have it all and more. At Horseshoe Reef, we normally have good schools of barracuda along with soft corals and a great dusk dive where we regularly find mandarin fish.

We have some great dive sites in the Bainings area, where visibility can be either great or plain horrible. When it is plain horrible, we head up to the Western most end of the Bainings to better visibility. The only time in this trip that we may get rough weather is the five hour crossing from the Western end of the Bainings to Father's Reef s. This only happens around 30% of the time, and we are not talking huge seas, just a reasonable amount of wind and a little bit of rocking and rolling as it is a bad angle.

Once we get to Father's Reefs, those people that like the bigger fish action are in their element. See my previous descriptions of the diving at Fathers in the section on Walindi/Walindi itineraries.

As we move back around to Kimbe Bay, there is a low spot through the mountain range on the island of New Britain that, 30% of the time, make the Walindi Sea Mounts inaccessible. If this is the case, we usually spend another day at Fathers Reefs (no hardship). However the Walindi Reefs and the pretty stuff in Kimbe Bay are usually protected and the trip finishes with the drop dead gorgeous reefs in the Bay.

The Rabaul-Walindi and Walindi-Rabaul itinerary is fast becoming one of my favourites as I have been fine tuning and tweaking the itinerary for two years.

When the trip starts at Rabaul, we again have dinner at Walindi Resort on the last night. When the trip finishes in Rabaul, we have dinner on board on the last night.

Rabaul itself has a magnificent war history, not to mention the active volcano shadowing the town. Our guests are always impressed with the unique and special sight of an active volcano puffing out plumes of smoke (although we are totally sick of it!). We make a land tour available on the afternoon of the last day after diving has ceased at lunchtime, which highlights the story and effects of the volcanic eruptions and the historic significance of Rabaul in the war years and this tour is great value.

South Coast New Britain itineraries .....

Our South Coast itineraries, departing from and returning to Rabaul, are scheduled during the monsoon season on the North coast of New Britain (January, FeBrina through to mid March).

The South Coast of New Britain Island, again due to that high mountain range down the middle of the island, experiences it's dry season at this time, with the winds remaining off shore. The South Coast is totally different to the other itineraries. If you are a big fish person, don't come! We leave from Rabaul in the evening of the departure day and overnight to Waterfall Bay. Diving begins the next morning in Waterfall Bay, where we spend the day on the various reefs in this area. The second night is an overnight steam to the Lindenhaven area where we spend the majority of the trip, hardly moving out of a one square mile area. The reefs in this area are prolific and there are many, many reefs that we have not yet dived upon. Although Lindenhaven has lagoon-like features, the channels and currents continually flushes the water. Within the lagoon, we have two clean rivers that deposit a certain amount of fresh water. One of the rivers comes out of the side of a mountain and we run a trip via jetboat to the cave where the river comes out. Good fun!

One other phenonoma of Lindenhaven is that the contours of the Solomon Trench (the third deepest part of the world's oceans at 32,000 feet) come in very close. This is the reason, in my opinion, that we get some extraordinary critters in this area ... some of them we can't find in any resource books. We usually run these trips with an open deck for the most part as the water isn't deep. Many of the dives are in black sand and I tend to take more dive guides on these trips. Our guides are up there with the best as "spotters".

In 2007, we saw mimic octopus, frogfish, one guest documented 47 different ghost pipefish covering almost every variety found in the books, jaw fish, cuttlefish, arrow crabs, orangutan crabs, leaf scorpion fish, rock mover wrasse, pipefish, anemone fish, holothurians, banded shrimp, lionfish, scorpion fish, crocodile fish, soft coral crabs, flying gurnards, nudibranchs of every description, bubble shells and cowry shells, garden eels, flatworms, Spanish dancer and much more. Some years we get Rhinopious (although I am sure they are there all the time - they are experts at camouflage). Last year on a night dive, guests saw and even photographed the very rare juvenile African Pompano Trevally. In 2004 we found a beautiful pink fondosa which has been hiding ever since.

What I am trying to say here is that you never know what you are going to find and this has a lot to do with water temperatures. These days with El Nino, La Nina, Bi Nina and Trans Nina, it is very difficult to predict not only the water temperature but also the weather.

However, if you have sharks tattooed on your arms, this is not the place for you. If you like Lembeh Straits, Ambon and Kunkungen Bay, then you won't be disappointed with Lindenhaven.

Having said this, we do also have some wide angle diving in the Lindenhaven area. If the currents are doing the right thing, the passages on incoming tides are absolutely fantastic. We have sighted devil rays (mobulas), barraduca, silvertips, eagle rays, spotted zebras, large schools of bumphead parrot fish and unbelievable soft corals in every colour.

On our way back to Rabaul, we stop at a place called Tavalo. I am still developing this area as a regular place to stop and dive on the South Coast itinerary but so far the diving has been great. The best part of a stop in this area, if you are inclined to do so, is when the locals take us for a walk through the jungle on a reasonable path to a waterfall that has a small but deep swimming hole at the bottom. It is unbelievable and I make sure that I don't miss out on this excursion myself as everyone ends up jumping in the water and it brings out the child in all of us. Another interesting part of the 30 minute walk is where the path goes through the village gardens where they grow sweet potato and all the other local produce. It is very interesting to see how they go about their subsistence living.

After Tavalo, we head back to Waterfall Bay for the day and then overnight to Rabaul where we spend the last half day (weather allowing) diving Sandra's Jetty. If the weather is being unkind in the Rabaul area, we have other options available to us in more protected sites. This link http://www.underwatercolours.com/PNG/papua_new_guinea.html is to Bonnie Pelnar's trip report on her voyage to the South Coast on Star Dancer in 2005, which pretty much describes Lindenhaven diving.

Things to remember .....

If you are planning on spending some time in Papua New Guinea while you are here and doing a land based add-on in addition to your liveaboard trip (i.e. staying at a land based resort or visiting the highlands), we would suggest you do this before your dive trip. This allows you to get over any jet lag and become accustomed to the higher temperatures and humidity in Papua New Guinea, do some check out dives and get right into "vacation" mode. Then do your liveaboard trip, which can be quite strenuous if you are doing the full complement of diving and head home, tired but happy!!

If you plan on organizing your own travel, considering the flights and distances involved, we would suggest you consider booking your travel through a reputable dive travel wholesaler. You might find it worth paying a little extra for an agent to book your air itinerary and then in the event of any delays or luggage going missing, your agent has all your itinerary details and can handle any problems for you. We have a list of agents we recommend on our web site.

We offer a light laundry service daily on both MV FeBrina and MV Star Dancer. All you need to bring besides traveling clothes and dive gear is t-shirts and shorts .... Underpants optional!!

If you wish to bring the crew something and you are passing through LAX, See's Chocolates, dark and creamy, go over well. And for good, old Al (me) a copy of Newsweek is always appreciated, doesn't matter if it is two weeks old and dog eared!

We have local brands of spirits on board if you like a particular brand and quality, we suggest you pick up a bottle from duty free on the way in to Papua New Guinea.

Most of the time I am on FeBrina now, but I still like to do the South Coast trips on Star Dancer. I have a fantastic captain and crew on Star Dancer for the North Coast itineraries. I have passed on my 21 years of experience to them, and the skipper, trip director and I often discuss the day's diving on the radio each morning.

If you have any queries which are not covered here, please email me cmiller@mackay.net.au. Don't be surprised if I have changed my name to "Cheryll" (Cheryll handles our reservations) ... she will pass the email onto me and I will be in touch personally.

In conclusion, I do get rather upset when people come back from what I know is a wonderful, diverse and beautiful dive with a disappointed look on their face and when I ask them "How was your dive?" they say "We didn't see a shark!". I quite often say "Why have you spent all this money to come here just to see sharks when you can go to the Bahamas for $999 all inclusive and see all the sharks you'd like?"

Papua New Guinea and Indonesia are all about diversity and that is what we sell. Our divemasters are trained to look for the rare and unusual and they are very good at it. While you will see some sharks, the diving here is about so very much more and we are looking forward to sharing that with you.

See you soon!
Capt. Alan Raabe