Mermaid II Itinerary

Maumere - Komodo - Bali with Whale Sharks of Saleh Bay

Check-in on board Mermaid II between 12:00-14:00 hours at Maumere Harbour in Flores. After the boat and safety briefing, you’ll set up equipment, and you can settle into your cabin. Dinner will be served at 19:00 hours as Mermaid II cruises into the sunset on her overnight journey to Komodo National Park. 

Three dives around the Lintah Strait, the strait between Komodo Island on the west and Rinca and Flores on the east. Here, you can expect crystal clear waters and a vast diversity of marine life from sharks and rays, including mantas, to turtles galore, schooling fish and nudibranchs if you can take your eyes off the rest of the action going on around you! There is a choice of dive sites, including Batu Bolong, Takat Makassar, Tatawa Besar, Tatawa Kecil, Batu Tengah, and Siaba Kecil. Your night dive can be either a critter dive at Wainiloo or a reef dive in northern Komodo. 

Mermaid II cruises south to Manta Alley, home to a large school of reef mantas. After exhilarating manta dives, she will cruise to Horseshoe Bay for your night dive at Torpedo Alley. This site offers some of the weirdest and most wonderful critters and macro diving you will ever see! 

Spectacular diving awaits you today at the world-famous dive site Cannibal Rock—rare nudibranchs, frogfish, spectacular corals, sponges, ascidians, huge black coral bushes, turtles, cuttlefish, loads of reef fish, and more. Watch dragons on the beach, spot monkeys, deer and wild pigs along the shore, and go beachcombing. There might even be a chance to follow whales and dolphins feeding in the calm bay.

Start your day with an exciting visit to Komodo National Park to walk with the dragons! Then relax for around 1.5 hours as Mermaid II cruises north to the Lintah Strait for one or two dives and then on to Gili Lawa laut or Gili Darat in north Komodo for a night dive to finish the day. 

Gili Lawa Laut has several great dives - if the tide is right, you will have a chance to spot grey reef sharks and dolphins at Taka Toko. Lighthouse Reef and The Old Passage offer fast drifts with pelagics, perhaps a manta if you are lucky! Crystal Rock offers awesome soft corals in gold and orange hues plus the chance for sharks, turtles, Napoleon wrasse and fishes galore. 

Today we will do two more dives around northern Komodo before leaving for Gili Banta for the third and night dives. Night dives at Gili Banta Bay or Stargazer beach which will deliver many unusual species and hunters in action. 

Two dives at Sangeang Island for rare nudibranchs, pygmy seahorses and underwater hot springs that support this very unique marine life. Then cruise all afternoon and night to Saleh Bay in Sumbawa in order to dive with whalesharks. 

Dive all morning with whale sharks in Slah Bay, Sumbawa, next to the fishing bagangs. After diving or snorkeling for several hours, Mermaid II will start heading back to Bali. 

Disembark after breakfast, and transfer at 8 am to the airport or your local hotel.

Sample itineraries are for guidance only. Actual itineraries may differ slightly due to factors such as weather, wildlife, logistics and local regulations.