Dive Review of
Ocean Rover in
Indonesia/Islands of North Sulawesi

 [Unspecified] 

Dive Conditions

[Unspecified]  

[None]  

Overall Rating

Ocean Rover has got to be the best dive operation on the planet. Service is
amazing.  On our 9 diving days we were in Lembeh's world, at strong
currented Banca, up towards Mindanao in the Philippines into the seldom
visited Sangihe archipelago, huge volcanoes and drop offs into open ocean. 
Then back south to dive the smoking Siau volcano's flanks, salt water hot
springs, and onward to Bunaken, Manado Tua, and the flats south of Minhassa
lagoon where in the grass 24 species of pelagic juvenile have been spotted,
all the other critters typical of Lembeh,  yellow and red sea horses
galore, 3 species of seas-snake, and a large very obliging bright yellow
rhinopias (holy grail) scorpion fish. The water is clearer here than
Lembeh.
Beautiful coral dense reefs packed with life everywhere on the cruise.
Multiple varieties of everything, a lot of it very small. Some of the dives
you flowed with currents others you could remain still. There are down
currents at places and washing machine effects here and there while
surfacing behind current swept open ocean seamounts.  You'd best learn
reflexive buoyancy control. The viz never got crystalline but it was
certainly good to very good for the most part except dim in Lembeh and up
in one enclosed lagoon in the Sangihe archipelago. A great trip. Dramatic
scenery. Nitrox package. I wish I'd known how good the service would be as
I certainly would have brought along more cash than the usual 10%.
Before and after our Ocean Rover cruise we stayed at the Lembeh Resort
which is very friendly, lovely, sweet and simple and affords three nitrox
dives a day. Their nitrox doesn't seem state of the art with tank O2
concentrations ranging from 27 to 40 in one particular batch of tanks. And
the Oxygen meter looked tired. The dive master suggested setting our
computers to air and having a huge safety margin, depth not being an issue.
Guides were good. Food service was a trifle tardy at times but I think they
are working on it. The cook had a tiny kitchen to work in, with a few woks
and pans and a three burner stove. On a bad night 14 people arrived at once
to eat. On the other hand, every now and then there is a barbeque that
leaves you babbling about the local grilled pork and all you can eat fresh
seared ahi tuna.
Rooms are comfortable with nice outdoor bathrooms and outdoor shower. At
night we discovered we needed to stuff towels into gaps in the door to keep
mosquitoes totally out. The area is supposedly Malaria free. 

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