The Banda Sea: Maumere to Ambon through the Forgotten Islands

The crew meet you at Maumere airport for the twenty-minute drive to the harbour. Depending on the hour there is a check dive in the bay, and possibly a night dive.

• Airport transfer
• Check dive in Maumere bay
• Possible night dive

The reef slopes into sand scattered with big coral heads, and the deep sections are soft coral and table coral with reef sharks and groupers. Late afternoon the anchor comes up for an overnight sail to Komba.

• Tanjung Gedong dives
• Reef sharks and groupers
• Overnight sail to Komba

Komba is an active volcano standing alone in the Flores Sea. Dive its sandy slopes for fish, nudibranchs and shells, then take the tender close under the slope to watch it erupt; it does so every twenty to thirty minutes. Overnight sail to the Alor strait.

• Dives on Komba's slopes
• Eruptions watched from the tender
• Overnight to Alor

Two days among the islands of Solor and Alor, with everything from muck dives to walls swept by current. Pulau Pura and Pulau Ternate have clear warm water, coral gardens and the shy mandarin fish for macro lovers; pilot whales and dolphins are often seen from the surface. Ashore, a village of the Abui people for a day in their traditional life.

• Muck dives and drop-offs
• Mandarin fish
• Pilot whales and dolphins
• The Abui village

A large, wild island north of Timor with untouched landscapes and lush forest. The dives are drop-offs with pelagic life passing in the blue.

• Wetar's drop-offs
• Pelagics
• An island with nobody on it

Terbang Utara and Terbang Selatan, two small islands south of Damar, give easy but fast drift dives along coral drop-offs. Nuss Leur is pinnacles, schools of colourful fish and pristine reef.

• Drift dives at the Terbangs
• Nuss Leur's pinnacles
• Overnight crossing

Two tiny islands lost in the Banda Sea, and the start of the hammerhead hunt. Nil Desperandum takes its name from a ship stranded on the reef. These are the spots where, with luck, schools of hammerhead sharks come through.

• Hammerhead sharks, with luck
• Nil Desperandum reef
• Serua

Bird island to its name, snake island to everyone who dives it, for the sea snakes on its reefs. Volcanic drop-offs with sharks, Spanish mackerel, tuna and barracuda, and another chance at hammerheads. Overnight crossing to the Bandas.

• Sea snakes and seabirds
• Sharks, tuna and barracuda
• Overnight to Banda

The Spice Islands, where nutmeg was once worth more than gold. A morning ashore in Banda Neira with the cruise director: the museum, Fort Belgica and an old nutmeg plantation. The diving is walls covered in gorgonians, soft corals and barrel sponges, pinnacles with schooling pyramid butterflyfish and tuna, muck along Gunung Api's slope and mandarin fish under a jetty.

• Banda Neira with the cruise director
• Fort Belgica and the nutmeg walk
• Wall and pinnacle dives
• Mandarin fish under the jetty

An isolated rock between Banda and Ambon with a magnificent drop-off and pristine reef: tuna, reef sharks and giant trevally in the water, brown and red-footed boobies and frigatebirds above it. Early afternoon the boat sails for Ambon.

• Suanggi's drop-off
• Giant trevally and reef sharks
• Seabirds
• Passage to Ambon

Breakfast on deck, then the crew take you to Pattimura airport.

• Breakfast on deck
• Transfer to the airport