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Photo credits to Filip Wolski, www.owuscholarship.org, Jim Valentine, Jay Kavanagh and Kararu Dive Voyages

Warm greetings to all readers of the Kararu Dive Voyages newsletter.

In this edition we bring you a special update on Kararu's recent tie in with Rolex. Firstly, Filip, Rolex's scholarship winner has contributed this month's feature cruise report. Next, we introduce you to our newest amazing team member, and as always, some very exciting trips for the new season you don't want to miss out on! Lastly, we introduce some expanded services on offer from Kararu Dive Voyages.

The Rolex Scholarship

The Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society present three Rolex Scholarships (www.owuscholarship.org)on a yearly basis. The year long program, designed to expose a qualified young person to a wide range of experiences in various marine and underwater related fields. the scholarship is awarded to three students, one in North America, Europe and Australasia respectively.

It receives generous funding from the Rolex Corporation and support from many other sponsors in the diving business. In addition, many private persons, organizations and companies host scholars throughout the year in support of this organization.The global underwater community sees the selected scholars as individuals with the potential to make significant contributions to the underwater world even though they have not chosen a specific career path.

During the course of the year, exposure to a wide array of work types and seek the chance to actually jump in and experience specific jobs providing scholars with invaluable career-deciding opportunities.The scholarship emphasizes hands-on experience in activities that will contribute to a well-rounded education and a broad network of contacts.

The 2009/2010 European winner is Filip Wolski from Poland. Fillip's passion for diving led him to seek an internship with Kararu Dive Voyages where we were chosen to host him to study professional live aboard management and operation based on Kararu's long standing experience within the liveaboard diving industry! We are proud to bring you one of his trip reports he wrote on the Cheng Ho. Read on below for the exciting coverage.

Liveaboard trip report

The Christmas and New Year's trip begins on December 23rd after locals cleared off the runway, took their cattle off it too and we land in a small airport in Sorong.

Here starts my internship with Kararu Dive Voyages - during the next two cruises, we're going to travel through the Raja Ampat archipelago, and eventually arrive in Ambon. Lucky me, I get to help the cruise directors along the way, to see how organization works on such a boat.

The cruise begins with a little bit longer than usual stay in Sorong harbor, my first taste of operating in such a remote area - one piece of luggage gets delayed, but with the logistical support of the Kararu offices, the luggage is located and we are soon motoring towards Raja Ampat.

The first dives give us a good lesson of what's going to accompany my whole stay here. Strong currents sweep us along the reef while these same currents make the soft corals open wide, and I learn they provide nutrients for all of the reef - with such splendor, how can any diver complain about current, we need it!! Soon we pass Aljui Bay, with it's pearl farm. Great diving, again and again!

We meet a little army of wobbegongs at the farm's pier, I had hoped to see one, but expectations were exceeded! On the surface, Kevin, the pearl farm's manager, gives us a little tour of the premises. We learned all about how to grow and harvest pearls, but most intriguingly I found out the reason to keep a group of soldiers protecting the area is not because of petty thieves but head-hunters!! Apparently, still present in the area!!

The next days come, and bring, guess what? More amazing diving! At Eagle Rock we meet couple of mantas, cruising slowly around the bottom, one propping itself in front of us for a long time. Every now and then we see sharks - black-tips, leopards, wobbegongs, even a white-tip, incredible. Then, many amazing little things, what I learned is referred to as, macro. This is just a blast in this part of the world.

My biggest awe was the pigmy seahorses, first, you cannot see them at all. Then, after a couple of dives you get so proud when you locate one yourself, you start to make a tally in your head. Finally, by the end of the trip, you stop counting as there are just so many!!

We meet robust and ornate ghost pipe fishes, some presenting themselves for beautiful shots, as if posing for a magazine shoot. The night dives are full of surprises which is always accompanied by the dive master's noisy tank banging to get the divers attention. Sometimes, you get sick of it, but if it keeps going on and on, better to follow the noise to the guide as it must be something special! The suspense is nerve racking until finally, what appeared in front of me on this occasion was a blue-ring octopus!

New Year's Eve comes, and Kararu hosts a special celebration which starts with a party at the beach or, the New Year's dive. I chose the latter as it is not every day you dive such a place as Raja Ampat.

During our evening dive, we meet a couple of squid that send us their own type of fireworks, a squirt of ink in the mask, a friendly turtle waves in the new year, and a couple of octopuses turn up for our underwater festivities!

At the surface, after a BBQ, we raise our first toast at 10 pm. There is such a wide variety of nationalities on board and we all try to stay awake to toast to Sydney's New Year at 10 PM, and my own, Vladivostok's at 11 pm, and many guests even make it to Bali's time at 1 am. What a way to ring in 2010!!

A few days later, we motor back to Sorong, our guests have to leave us, as the next trip is about to start. I am fortunate as I have one more trip left on board, what will this time bring? I learn that we will take a southern route through Raja Ampat, as the disembarkation port will be Ambon. The greatest thing about these trips, in my opinion, was the abundance of life. I remember so clearly on one dive, Boo Wall, I was surrounded by an uncountable number of glass fish, closely followed by small groups of tarpons.

Large schools of glass fishes kept turning and passing around us. The drama of this hunt lasted for a good 15 minutes at dive's end, until the SPGs warned us to get out of the water!! This happened over and over again, on so many dives where we got surrounded by swarms of all types of fishes, at 5 meters depth towards the end of the dive. One could feel the agitation of the situation when the school would start to move slightly faster, and then you'd see it, out of the corner of your eye, a shark or two with the word, dinner in his eye!

Finally, for me, the icing on top of this wonderful cake presented to me through Raja Ampat was Ambon. It's famous for diving inside the actual harbor, at first glance, I thought, what must be below that oily surface, a cornucopia of macro life, that is what!

In just few dives we met not one but two wonderpuses, frog fish, lots of species of sea horses, sea wasps, gurnards, spanish dancers, star gazers, stonefish, devilfish, pure heaven!

My time with Kararu has come to an end and I still feel reluctant to leave my cabin, and moreover, the boat. It became more than a home for one very amazing month, great dives, and such a wonderful group of people. Thank you Kararu! Hopefully, and I will dream of the day, I will be back there again, the sooner the better!

Filip Wolski

Special Cruise offers

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. 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.

To dive the very best of Komodo, we have selected a few trips below where we still have limited availability.

13-10 Labuan Bajo - Bima (July 23-Aug 02, 2010)
14-10 Bima - Labuan Bajo (Aug 04-15, 2010)
15-10 Labuan Bajo - Labuan Bajo (Aug 17-24, 2010)

Please contact us for more information about these special deals

Featured Team Member - Gabrielle

Featured this month is Gabrielle, she has just joined Kararu Dive Voyages , in the sales and marketing department.

She brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience from the Indonesian live-aboard industry. Many of you will know Gabrielle from her time with other operators and huge personalities like Larry Smith.

She is your friendly sales and marketing assistant for any questions regarding booking a cruise with Kararu.

Welcome to the team Gabrielle!

New Kararu Service

Many of our more than 6000 divers have visited Bali or other places either before or after cruising with us.

During their stay they were introduced to the fantastic handy-craft, furniture's and wood work available to prices you can only dream about at home. Many guests have asked us to help them in obtaining these products, as they themselves do not have the time to do so.

We are now very pleased to announce that we have found the perfect partner to help you source the products you want. We have teamed up with a very experienced and well known sourcing company called indonesian-sourcing.com, which is based here in Bali.

They have plenty of experience dealing with customers from all parts of the globe and will be very happy to cater to your individual need as well. For more information on how to source the best of Indonesia, please visit their web site www.indonesian-sourcing.com