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Photo credits to Jim Watt & Steve Fish.

Halfway Through Season 2008

A warm welcome back to all readers of the Kararu Newsletter.

In this edition of the Kararu Dive Voyages Newsletter we bring you a front row view of an erupting volcano, the latest report from Diver Hall of Fame’s own Cathy Church on her trip to Komodo, some special deals on Autumn cruises, our featured employee of the month and a little pep talk about morals and fair business practice!

With the Cheng Ho now back in Bali, the first half of the 2008 season has come to an end. A complete maintenance and refitting is being done on her during the three week break, before embarking on another six months of great dive trips to Indonesia's very best dive destinations.

One of our favorite group leader teams and true industry professionals, Cathy Church and Herb Rafael recently joined us for a full boat charter on a spectacular trip to Komodo. Read on for their exciting trip report with an amazing discovery of never before seen nudibranchs. Cathy Church has rebooked 2 more full boat charters with us for 2010, please contact her directly if you are interested in signing up for these great trips.

An Explosive View

Explosive wake-up call...

On the way from Alor to Komodo we treated our guests to a truly spectacular wake-up call. Having anchored the vessel close to an active volcano for the night, the following morning brought the best alarm call ever on the Cheng Ho! A spectacular, front row view of the volcano erupting before our very eyes!

Eruptions kept coming in a roughly 20 minutes interval throughout the day and through the whole next night. Tender boats were used to get our guests even closer to this spectacular view - resulting in some great pictures. Truly a very special, one of a kind liveaboard memory to bring home.

Cathy Church Charter Trip Report

Finishing out our spring season before heading back to Bali for some R&R we had the pleasure of Cathy Church and Herb Rafael, and 15 of their guests. Let’s just say the trip was nothing short of extraordinary…read on.

For those who have never dove Komodo, let us entice you a little. Here is a brief summary of the trip’s diving…cool things we saw will be in capital letters for those of you who don’t read the whole thing.

We started our trip with a casual evening dive at our favorite Sumbawa dive spot…this netted us at least 10 HYPSELODORIS BULLOCKII nudibranchs, as well as a few ORNATE GHOST PIPEFISH, and of course the mating HALGERDA BATANGAS nudis.

That was only the orientation dive. For the next few days we played around the north of Komodo National Park, circumnavigation Sangean and dropping anchor for a day at GiliLawaLaut.

Sangean’s black volcanic slopes brought us multiple ORNATE GHOST PIPEFISH, a miniature WARTY FROGFISH, LEAF FISH, multiple species of CERATOSOMA nudis, INIMICUS, and of a pair of MATING OCTOPUS.

Moving on to the fish packed pinnacles of GiliLawaLaut we spent some time watching the WHITE TIP REEF SHARKS mingle with the HUGE GIANT TREVALLY…oh, and I forgot to mention the 3 DOLPHINS that were dive bombing the fish clouds around us.

TatawaBesar’s “Little Slice O’Heaven” gave us a phenomenal drift along it’s SOFT-CORAL saturated bommie slope joining some GREEN and HAWKSBILL TURTLES for a ride. Tiring of amazing schools of fish and stunning macro subjects, we decided to head south and search for some MANTAS…nature, however, had other plans. With high seas preventing us from playing with mantas, we headed instead to Horseshoe Bay. The H-Bay did not leave is wanting. Cannibal Rock gave us a 2 GIANT FROGFISH BUTTING HEADS, 2 CERATOSOMA SINUATA (formerly Miamira) nudis, in addition to the 19 OTHER SPECIES OF NUDIS we found.

Torpedo Alley lived up to its name giving us TORPEDO RAYS, ORNATE GHOST PIPEFISH, 8 MINIATURE FROGFISH (on one dive), and at least 2 UNIDENTIFIED SPECIES OF PHILODESMIUM nudis.

Boring of this macro splendor (yeah right) after two days, we decided to try our luck at mantas again. Granting us passage, we spent the WHOLE day amongst at least 8-10 MANTAS and numerous HUGE TREVALLY and WHITE TIP REEF SHARKS. Oh, and a few TURTLES…

Having put our dome ports to the test, we decided to take another crack at macro…Sangean and Satonda here we come.

Our night dive set a boat record…one rock, no bigger than a hibachi grill, had BOXER CRABS, and 10, that’s right 10 FROGFISH on it…and 3 species of NUDIBRANCHS. The grassy slopes of Satondabrough us 3 WONDERPUS OCTOPUS that were not in a hurry and provided us with two dives of professional modeling. Well, that in a nutshell is Komodo.

This description of course omits the numerous KOMODO DRAGONS we saw at the local ranger station and along the beaches of Horseshoe Bay. Needless to say, the diving in Komodo was nothing short of spectacular and the Cheng Ho is a great diving platform to do it from. In short, as always, we provide the " Diving Experience of a Lifetime" in Indonesia.

Captain Hergen Spalink
Cruise Director
Kararu Dive Voyages

Website:www.cathychurch.com

A Talk About Business Morals

Yes, that’s right, morals! For those of you who have yours intact, just skip this section, and enjoy the rest of the newsletter!

For any other curious readers who like to dabble in a bit of gossip, you may be asking yourself, or perhaps you might have noticed, there are TWO particular diving publications that seem to pay a fair bit of “attention” to Kararu Dive Voyages these days. Once in a while, about every 3 months to be precise, strange and incorrect reports are published by either, people who have never been on board our vessel, or fellow divers who were on board and told outright lies in their report.

In one recent publication, both the author and the editor of the report, couldn’t even spell our name or list our website correctly! In fact, it was so grossly incorrect that when you click on the link to our website it takes you to a rather, shall we say, controversial advertising portal – intentional, we’ll let you decide!?

But thankfully, there is hope for professionalism, and serious, ethical business practices... that is where Kararu, in the spirit of the upcoming Olympics, take the gold medal!

Kararu holds a very loyal following of divers over our many, many years of operation in Indonesia. We have managed to keep this impeccable reputation of integrity, responsibility and great diving cruises over our more than 9 years of operation simply by being true and professional experts in our field, in our region and in diving and customer service.

So, just in case one of our fellow divers and friends may have come across one of these reports, Kararu would like to point out to you, most importantly, to remember the facts listed below!

• We have the most Western staff employed to ensure that the service both on the ground and on board are as close as possible to what would experience in your own country
• We have 30 Indonesian staff employed and trained to the highest of standards to ensure that our reputation of customer service is kept in check at all times
• In almost 10 years of operation, Kararu has conducted EVERY SINGLE cruise listed on our schedules!
• We are the only live aboard with an on ship permanent photo pro
• We are the only live aboard that has operated in Irian Jaya (Papua, Raja Ampat) consecutively for 7 years
• We are the liveaboard that offers the biggest space per ratio of guests
• We are the only liveaboard that can offer 5 single cabins at only 15 USD more than a twin share and still take 20 guests
• We listen to your feedback and suggestions and constantly reinvest by upgrading and implementing your ideas

Kararu does not wish to claim that we are flawless, nor are we 100 percent perfect in every area, this is impossible for any operator to justify. To run a liveaboard in Indonesia is no simple task but we do our jobs to the best of our ability with pride and with the best intentions.

We lived, survived and kept you scuba diving through 9/11, the Bali bombings, SARS, Avian Bird Flu and we will continue to keep you diving on board our liveaboard's well into the future!

Well, now that we have the facts straight, you might be asking yourself, so with a company that has been around for so long and has so many wonderful reports published on the operation, why have I seen a few negative reports on the internet or perhaps in a publication about Kararu Dive Voyages and their vessel Cheng Ho?

In Kararu’s case, the answer is simple. Kararu is a very successful liveaboard with a long, prosperous history in the diving industry. Other individuals or operators come and try to mimic our operation and when they fail, a deep envy arises towards the overall great team and operation Kararu offers. These jealous and envious individuals then strike out in anger of their failure and attack those who succeed. We, at Kararu, are very happy to see all operators both in Indonesia and abroad prosper and carry divers safely on their diving holidays as we know that with good karma and a positive attitude, success and an all around balanced operation is sure to follow.

So, there you have it, it all comes down to a few jealous individuals trying to ruin it for the rest of us good folks! And thus, we point you to the instant on line trip review section of our website where you can get honest feedback from REAL divers who have been on board our vessel.

Kararu would like to thank all our loyal supporters, pros, guests, agents, group leaders, all of you for keeping our team in action and continuing to book our vessels, enabling us to give to you what we feel this business is all about, the best scuba diving in Indonesia!

Online Trip Reviews

The Internet and it's many different forums is a very powerful tool when it come to expressing feeling on a trip onboard Liveaboard vessels. We believe that guests who has actually done a trip with us, are the ones who can give the most accurate feed-back on their experience. Since February 2008 we have added a dedicated page listing all recent comments from actual guests from the different trips onboard the Cheng Ho. Furthermore, guest will have a possibility of posting a portfolio of their underwater shots on-line.

Please Click Here For Recent Guest Comments

Special Deals in 2008

There are also a few spots left on some upcoming trips to great diving destinations so if you can travel on a whim, book fast and receive attractive discounts! We have selected a few trips below where we still have limited availability.

17-08 Bima -Bima (AUG 09-20, 2008) The best of Komodo, contact us for a special deal.

19-08 Bima -Bali (SEP 02 - 09, 2008) The best of Komodo, contact us for a special deal.

Diving in Komodo is simply fantastic! An abundance of dive sites to choose from, short cruising distance between dives and excellent diving conditions during the summer month's make a trip to Komodo an absolute must for serious divers.

Please contact us for specific trip details

Featured Team Member - Sri

Featured this month is Sri, she has been with Kararu Dive Voyages since September, 2005. Sri is from Bali's capital Denpasar and graduated from Udayana University with a BA in accounting and financial control.

Sri is the head of our accounting department, and is responsible for ensuring that the cost of your flight, transportation and hotel reservations have been calculated correctly. She runs the accounting side of Kararu with ease and efficiency (quite a feat when dealing with banking regulations in Indonesia!).

Please feel free to email or Skype Sri and talk to her live if you have any questions regarding your invoice!

Next Issue

We will be featuring Berkeley White from Backscatter & Dan Baldocchi from Under Exposures on their trip to Komodo in the next issue. Don't forget to check out some of the amazing guest comments on our new dedicated guest comment page.

The Kararu team and management looks forward to welcoming you on board our vessels for the liveaboard scuba diving expedition of a lifetime. Please feel free to contact any of us at any time or see the 2008 and 2009 cruise schedules at our web site. www.kararu.com/schedules