Sep 22 – Oct 1, 2026

DAY 1 MAUMERE After boarding Adelaar in Maumere in the North of Flores, you will enjoy your first day on board whilst cruising eastwards along the Flores coast. DAY 2 ADONARA The submerged seamounts off Adonara are covered by a diverse mix of hard and soft corals. They provide shelter for a variety of reef fish and attract bigger predators such as jacks, tunas, and black tip and grey reef sharks. Juvenile silvertip sharks are often seen patrolling the typically clear blue water. 3 day dives DAY 3 PANTAR We start the day with an adrenalin filled dive with the objective to see schooling hammerhead sharks, followed by a second morning dive on a stunning wall that is covered so completely in soft corals that we might get a sensory overload. The afternoon and night dive take place on a patch reef that is well known for harboring rhinopias. After the afternoon dive, we let the locals show us around their picturesque village. 3 day dives, 1 night dive DAY 4 PURA Today's diving takes us on a unique site that is dominated by sheer endless carpets of anemones and regularly visited by thresher sharks and mola molas, a spectacularly beautiful hard coral reef, where one of the attractions is observing local freediving fishermen and a impressive big overhang where critters such as clown frogfish, pontohi seahorses or halimeda ghost pipefish can be found. Very likely Adelaar will be boarded in between dives by a group of local ikat weavers that offer their beautiful fabrics for purchase. 3 day dives DAY 5 WETAR After a night's crossing we arrive in the morning in the Moluccas! We are diving the walls and slopes of Reong and Wetar. Depending on the prevailing current they can be very rich in fish. Grey reef sharks, bamboo sharks, giant trevally, schooling big eyed jacks, rainbow runners and tunas are often seen here. On the quieter dives there are areas completely covered in zebra anemones. With a bit of luck, we may spot the beautiful but rare leopard shrimp that lives in symbiosis with them. We will set the sails as we start our journey into the heart of the Banda Sea. With a bit of luck, we may see some of the whales that migrate through these waters during this time of the year. 3 day dives DAY 6 GUNUNG API Gunung Api means simply volcano in Indonesian. It is an old, lonely volcano that arises from the depth of the Banda sea. It attracts a huge colony of resident seabirds above the waves, while under water the island is home to schools of jacks, surgeonfish, tunas, barracudas and other pelagic fish species - as well as a lot of sea snakes. These venomous but unaggressive reptiles can be encountered on each dive around Gunung Api, sometimes in great numbers, which makes these dives absolutely unique. 4 day dives DAY 7 LUCIPARA MAISEL ARCHIPELAGO The Lucipara archipelago consists of several uninhabited low profile sandy islands with lush tropical vegetation. The islands themselves are inaccessible, protected by very shallow fringing reefs that extend several hundred meters from the islands themselves. At the edge these huge coral shallows plunge steeply into the typically crystal-clear abyss of the Banda Sea. Diving these remote locations has by definition an exploratory character - their location in the middle of the deep sea with no other islands around is very inviting for passing pelagics to hang around, thus increasing chances of close encounters between divers and bigger species such as tunas, rainbow runners, thresher sharks, silky sharks or hammerhead sharks. 4 day dives DAY 8 SOUTH AMBON After two morning dives on the exposed south coast of Ambon island that are both stunning from a topographical and coral cover point of view, we enter Ambon Bay where we will go hunting for critters. Thorny seahorses, ornate ghost pipefish, rhinopias, frogfish and ribbon eels are just a few examples to illustrate the extraordinarily rich muck diving of Ambon Bay. 3 day dives. 1 night dive DAY 9 LAHA Laha's muck diving sites are world renowned. Apart from a plethora of nudibranchs, cephalopods, ambon scorpionfish and different species of leaf scorpionfish, Laha is also famously the only place in the world where - with some luck! - the beautifully weird psychedelic frogfish may be spotted. 2 day dives DAY 10 AMBON After a last delicious breakfast, it is time to say goodbye and disembark - until the next time. (Itinerary might vary depending on weather and sea conditions)