Dive Review of Mermaid I in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat

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Mermaid I: "Raja Ampat with a full moon", Jan, 2023, by Joel Hirsh, CT, US ( Reviewer 5 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 12383.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This was a 10 day (8 diving days) trip through Raja Ampat from the northern islands to Misool. This was my second trip on the Mermaid I. I chose the Mermaid I based on that great experience, and that it is one of the few boats with a single cabin. As generally a solo diver, not sharing a cabin with a stranger at my age is worth the extra $. Please see my review from Oct 2019 for details about the boat and dive operation which have not changed and are still excellent. One new wrinkle was putting all of our wetsuits and booties through a dryer after a thorough rinse on the last afternoon so we had really dry things to pack up. Most days there were 4 dives (29 total), but spread out more than typical to include a night dive (around 6:30). The advantage was long surface intervals (typically close to 2 hrs) so never a limits issue. The downside was late dinners most nights. Almost everyone was diving Nitrox and the combination of the loose schedule and relatively shallow dives (rarely went below 70') made for nice long dives (70 minutes official limits) when the currents allowed. I had very high expectations for Raja Ampat, but conditions didn’t always live up to them. There was a full moon and the resulting tidal currents were very strong on some dives. In those cases the work expended didn’t seem worth it. Other dives were amazing with the huge schools expected, lots of hard & soft corals, and vis of 60-80'. We did two dives at one location (Dayang) for mantas. There were up to 4 reef mantas around at any given time with one oceanic mixing in. Downside was poor vis (30-40') but as they emerged out of the haze maybe 10' over your head, it was quite an effect. This is the first time I’ve had such mixed conditions due to a full moon, so I’ll be more aware of moon phases in the future. But I’ll still recommend the Mermaid I for any trip in Indonesia.
Websites	Mermaid I
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Caribbean, Australia, PNG, Philippines, Indonesia
Closest Airport	Sorong	Getting There	From Jakarta or Bali, mostly connections on domestic airlines to Sorong. Not easiest place to fly to.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	84-85°F / 29-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	30-80 Ft/ 9-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	70 minutes; 60 minutes night dive
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Many large rinse tanks and big table on dive deck. Lots of outlets in each cabin. They even included a power strip so charging in cabin was OK. Also note the smoke detector in each cabin.

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Dive Review of Mermaid I in Indonesia/Raja Ampat

Mermaid I: "Raja Ampat with a full moon", Jan, 2023,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Mermaid I in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat