Mermaid I 12D11N

Check in on board Mermaid I. Once all guests are on board, a safety briefing will be given. If all the guests are on board by 12,00 hours, you have the chance to do 1 or 2 extra dives at Lembeh Strait in some fabulous muck dives with critters galore. Cruise overnight to Tanjung Flesko, 70 nautical miles.

Today we will spend the day at Tanjung Flesko, which is the northeastern cape of the Tomimi Bay. Drifting with some strong currents next to walls and steep slopes covered in an amazing variety of soft corals. Just let yourself go with the current and enjoy the reef scenery. From Tanjung Flesko, we will call the whale shark center at Gorontalo, to arrange diving or snorkeling with the whale sharks in 2 days’ time. Cruise overnight to Gorontalo, 95 nautical miles.

Today, Mermaid will spend the morning and afternoon diving at the small village of Olele. The dive sites in Olele consist mainly of walls and steep slopes with ridges, covered mainly in sponges and soft corals, and beautiful hard coral gardens in the shallows. This area is famous due to the Dali sponges that can be found sprouting from the walls. After the 3rd dive, Mermaid will cruise to Gorontalo in order to due the night dive, and sleep in a protected bay.

Gorontalo is one of several places in Indonesia where there are regular encounters with whale sharks. The whale shark center at Gorontalo does research and keeps track of the whale sharks that frequent the area. They are also the ones who organize the diving and snorkeling with these magical creatures. Usually, we do 1 or 2 dives with the whale sharks and then an afternoon dive in one of the many walls and reefs around Gorontalo. After the 3rd dive, Mermaid will start cruising towards the volcano of Una Una, the most eastern island of the Togian archipelago. Cruise overnight to Gorontalo – 95 nautical miles.

The 5th day of the trip will be spent at the Volcano of Una Una. Unlike the rest of the Togian Islands, Una Una does not have any white sandy beaches, all the sand around the island is either black or gray. The volcano is short, rising 500 meters above sea level with a 2 km wide caldera, and the last time it erupted was in 1.983. Una is one of the great diving spots in the Togians. It has over 35 different dive sites, enough to spend several days diving. It is also one of the best dive sites to see massive schools of blacktail barracudas, schooling bigeye trevallies, and passing pelagic species such as tunas. Cruise overnight to Batudaka Island or Togian Island – 58 nautical miles

The next 2 days will be spent in the north of the islands Batudaka, Togian, and Malingi and Kadidiri where there is a reef system that is about 165 km long with plenty of dive sites such as Nursery Rock, Kota Wall, Gap, Crack, Shark Rock, Dominic Rock, Labyrinth, Taipi, Batu Gila, Lost Reef, Kadidiri House Reef, and Malingi. We will also visit several atolls that are north of Batudaka, where you can dive both the inside of the atoll as well as on the outside next to walls full of overhangs and swim-throughs. Or dive at the volcanic island of Tapuan, which is a volcanic island surrounded by a reef and deep drop-off walls.

The next several days, we will be diving on the south and west coast of Togian, where there are deep pinnacles surrounded by schooling fish, and also where we can find a WWII wreck, a B-24 bomber. The “Consolidated B-24 Bomber Liberator” lies between 16 and 22 meters over a sandy bottom. The plane is in fairly good condition. You can still see the two barrels of the turret gun as well as the instruments in the cockpit. We will also spend some time diving around the islands of Walea, Puah, and Dondola. These islands are surrounded by a reef barrier, where you can find plenty of schooling fish as well as good macro life. After the 2nd dive on day 9, Mermaid will cruise back to Tanjung Flesko, in order to keep on exploring some of the most amazing reefs in Sulawesi. Cruise overnight to Tanjung Flesko – 125 nautical miles

Mermaid is now back in the beautiful area of Tanjung Flesko, where there are plenty of options for diving besides the reefs. There are also pinnacles and rocks that break the surface that can have tricky currents and surge, but where pelagics and schooling fish can be seen passing by. After the 3rd dive, Mermaid will start heading back to Lembeh for the last day of diving. Cruise overnight to Lembeh – 75 nautical miles

The last day of diving will be in Lembeh, the muck diving capital of the world. Lembeh Strait – some of the best muck diving in Indonesia! There is no better place in the world to do muck diving than in Lembeh. Black sand, white sand, gray sand environments full of the stranger’s critters you can imagine. Frogfish, all kinds of octopi, spiny devilfish, nudibranchs galore, and so much more.

Disembark at 8 am after breakfast, Mermaid I staff will transfer you to the airport or yor hotel in Lembeh.
This is a sample itinerary and is subject to changes beyond the operator’s control. The exact itinerary, route and amount of dives for your cruise may be adapted to best suit the weather conditions, tides and currents, season and other prevailing events.