Dive Review of Pindito in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat

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Pindito: "Return to Indonesia to Dive the Pindito in Raja Ampat", Jan, 2023, by Jeanette Hartshorn, MO, US ( Sr. Contributor 22 reports with 17 Helpful votes). Report 12770.
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	We dived on the Pindito thru the Banda Sea about 8yrs prior to this trip and had some of the best diving of our lives, by far. The crew was helpful and engaging, dive sites spectacular- some of them were even exploratory - and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Of course we had hoped for another fantastic trip. We planned on diving Raja Ampat on the Pindito in April of 2021 but we all knew what happened in the world at that time. So once countries opened up and flights across Indonesia resumed we finally made it to Raja Ampat in January 2023. We made it there just fine, albeit jet lagged as expected. Stayed a couple of nights in Jakarta before catching the red-eye flight to Sorong (no choice there) but still jet lagged. We were picked up promptly by the Pindito crew at the airport early in the morning in Sorong and taken to the ship to get checked into our cabins so we could rest and relax. They also offered a light breakfast for us, while other guests were arriving from other locations. They gave safety briefings, including fire, to us when they took us to our cabins and insisted that we do all battery charging in the salon so that it could be monitored. Food was plentiful and tasty. They always offered a local Indonesian meal along with a more western style meal. The shrimp on a couple of occasions was very good but no fresh fish was served. Chicken dishes were also good; pork and beef sometimes gristley. The next morning we started what would become our dive routine for the next 9 days. First dive briefing is at about 8am; second one at about 11am, third at about 3pm and if there was an evening or night dive the briefing was anywhere between 6-7:30pm. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate perfectly. Though it was not horrible with storms, it rained almost every day. Fortunately not every minute of every day. We did have to reroute one afternoon and missed a dive due to a pending storm and rough weather. The rain and lack of sunshine definitely impacted the underwater visibility as typical was about 40’. And even though our gear was hanging under cover, it never really dried out because of the rain being driven in underneath the cover by the wind. You know how wet gear can chill you out; seems I struggled to stay warm without the sun’s heat. As there was so often cloud cover, I also missed seeing the beautiful night sky full of stars as we were cruising along in the evening. All of our dives were multilevel; most at a max depth of 65-85 feet, a couple of 90+ft, while the evening/night dives were at 30-60 feet. Most (all?) guests were diving on Nitrox. We had 2 dive groups with 5-6 divers per Divemaster (only 11 guests onboard- not a full ship which was nice!). Three Divemasters would alternate between the 2 groups and 1 would rotate out. They were excellent at finding and pointing out the small stuff, including the Bargibanti pygmy seahorses, pipefish, blue dragon nudibranchs, electric clams, etc. Sitings of reef fish were amazing as you would expect in Raja Ampat, as were the soft and hard corals on most of the dives. We only saw mantas on a couple of dives, but they stayed around us, either feeding or being cleaned. We did see some sharks (often white tips) cruising through occasionally but they were not close. Except the wobbegong sharks sleeping on coral ledges, or the epaulette sharks on the night dives. They are SO COOL! We didn’t do any dives with reef hooks at points where you might watch for tuna, sharks and other big fish hunting. That was a bit disappointing for me. There were a couple of divers who hadn’t been diving for awhile over the COVID time, and one in particular had a serious problem with buoyancy control and air consumption. I think for this reason the Cruise Director chose not to go to those spots. Dive sites were located in regions of Segaf, Wayil, Pele, Fiabacet, Warakaraket, Matan, Yum, Dayang, Penemu, Sawandarek, Yenbuba, and Kri. Some of our favorite dive sites included Four Kings, with its four pinnacles and loaded with schools of fish of all sizes, Wedding Cake with its interesting tiered pinnacle formation, Eagle Nest where we watched a huge Manta at a cleaning station on a gorgeous pinnacle, Nudi Rock with varied sealife, Dayang Slope with Blue ring octopus, wobbegong and more, Melissa’s Garden with many schools of fish, wobbegong, Keryo Channel with the pygmy seahorses, Arch Lagoon with the really cool swim thru and plentiful beautiful corals and fishes, Sawandarek Jetty – though busy with other dive operations and snorlelers lots of life to see including giant Hawksbill turtles, and Sardine Run in Kri with its beautiful pinnacle, action and much to enjoy. Dives during daylight were drift dives, while evening/night dives were moored; dives typically lasted for about 65minutes. We had a couple of land excursions to see some park areas and vistas from shore. I appreciated stepping onto land for these short visits and having the opportunity to see so many islands from a high lookout. We consistently saw other dive operations at sea while cruising thru Raja Ampat, and even had to change our dive site selections sometimes as the site that our Cruise Director wanted us to dive already had a dive operation on it. We did dive a couple of sites where other operations were diving and it felt way too busy down there. Out in the middle of nowhere – that was disappointing. All in all, it was a fabulous trip and we made the best out of having to reroute a couple of times. The crew was great, the ship is classic and comfortable but not exotic or luxurious (which we appreciate) and diving was amazing. It’s always joyful to experience the abundance and diversity of life in Indonesian waters. Just wished the weather had been more pleasant but, then again, it could have been far worse. It’s a long haul to Raja Ampat from the middle of the US but I will have incredible memories for life.
Websites	Pindito
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Bahamas, Bimini, Grand Turk, Florida, Atlantic, Mexico, Cayman Islands, Belize, Roatan, Utila, Dominica, Saba, St Maarten, St Kitts, Indonesia, Maldives, Hawaii, Palmyra Atoll, Cocos Island, Galapagos
Closest Airport	Sorong, West Papua	Getting There	From either Jakarta or Bali to Sorong
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas
Water Temp	81-83°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	25-40 Ft/ 8-12 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	No deco
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 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	dedicated space for UW camera systems and charging

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Dive Review of Pindito in Indonesia/Raja Ampat

Pindito: "Return to Indonesia to Dive the Pindito in Raja Ampat", 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 Pindito in
Indonesia/Raja Ampat