Triton Bay, West Papua, Indonesia

4Samuel Pasaribu 5:00 PM Jul 17, 2018

Real hidden gems
Triton Bay can be reached from Kaimana by speed boat for around 2 hours. To visit it better to go in the morning from Kaimana to avoid big waves in the afternoon. Triton Bay is a small bay and half-surrounded by big coral walls. The water was very clean with the green color. We can swim there. There was a small bay with pink color near the Triton Bay. Just ask the boat to visit Pink Beach. It was really pink and we can also swim at that bay. The other interesting spot was a painting from ancient ages on the coral walls before the Triton Bay. To capture better picture you should to use drone. Unfortunately my drone was having problem when I visit Triton Bay.

4DiverMiguelito 5:00 PM Nov 2, 2015

Great Boat/Crew with Challenging Dive Conditions
The original itinerary for this 12 night live-aboard trip was to start in Ambon then on to the Banda Islands, next diving the Forgotten Islands and finishing in Triton Bay. However, weather conditions forced a change in the itinerary so that the boat did not reach the Forgotten Islands. Instead we returned to Eastern Seram after diving the Banda Islands and also hitting Nils Desperada for 2 dives. After diving Koon Island, we headed east to Mommon on Papua then down to Triton Bay. The Damai Dua is a very spacious boat with large cabins, dining area and salon. My cabin had both a queen and single bed plus a desk. It had lots of storage space and several wall hooks. The lighting in the cabin was generally inadequate. The head included a large shower with plenty of hot water. When the boat was underway, the toilet did not always flush properly. The cabin was kept clean and tidy by the crew. The trip fare included laundry. The Damai Dua is the typical Indonesian live-aboard design with no keel. The boat tended to roll quite a bit even in moderately choppy seas. Some guests became a bit seasick. The boat offered free wifi that did not work consistently even within range of cell towers. The dining area is large enough to accommodate 12 guests plus the cruise directors. Then food was generally tasty and plentiful with the kitchen very flexible in satisfying special requests. A nice variety of Indonesian and Western foods were served including tuna, steak and chicken. The trip included beer and a glass of wine at dinner. The salon area is quite comfortable and offered a large library of marine life books. Up top is a large sundeck with plenty of lounge chairs and bean bags. The Damai Dua has a very spacious and complete camera room with several stations accommodating even large camera rigs. Both 110 and 220 power is provided in a well lit, no A/C in camera room so that outside ambient temperature is maintained. The dive deck is spacious with each dive station having its own camera rinse tank. After and adequate dive briefing, the crew loads the dive gear on to the skiffs. After a short skiff ride, dive gear is donned then a back roll into the water. 10 dives were divided into 3 separate dive groups with its own dive guide. Dive guides were rotated daily. 2 of the 3 dive guides were excellent critter finders. Upon return to the big boat, the crew unloaded the dive gear from the skiffs, rinsed, dried and folded wet suits, gloves, hoods, etc. The dive conditions were a bit challenging and somewhat unexpected with relatively cold water, generally 73˚f-76˚f, and low viz. I wore a full 3mm wetsuit on top a full 3mm wetsuit with a beanie and there were some dives where I was still cold. All U/W photography was macro due to the poor viz and very hazy, smoky skies. The haze was due to fires burning all across Indonesia. The photo subjects were generally: nudibranchs, flatworms, pygmy seahorses, crustaceans, eels, mandarinffish, pipefish, cuttlefish and glimpses of hammerhead sharks. Because of the very hazy, smoky skies, the air strip at Kaimana was closed indefinitely. So guests would not likely make their international flight connections. However, cruise director, Gerry, did a truly remarkable job of arranging flights from Sorong to Jakarta. The guests chose to forego the last 1 1/2 days of diving so the boat could motor up to Sorong in time to make the flights that had been pre-booked. The total distance travelled on this trip with the re-routing was over 1100 nautical miles. The Damai Dua is a very nice boat with a great crew. The diving was a bit less than hoped for due to unexpected conditions. I will definitely seriously consider another trip on the Damai Dua.