Ocean Hunter II - Palau

Photo: Douglas David Seifert Photo: DDS Photo: DDS Photo: DDS Photo: DDS

I recently visited Palau to do a feature for DIVE (Current Affairs, August 2005) and booked on the Ocean Hunter II. Granted, the boat was new in service and everything was fresh paint and new carpeting, but beyond that surface gloss it was the attention to detail that made me think: this is a diver’s dive boat. Nothing is left to chance, everything is logically thought out for ease, comfort and a pleasing dive experience. For example, most of the passenger cabins are just off the dive deck, down a brightly lit corridor past an extraordinarily spacious camera room. Divers can get to their rooms and change out of wet swimsuits without climbing stairs or making their way down dark halls. I can’t think of any boat as convenient.

A diver can just come up from a dive, take off gear, rinse camera and set it on one of two camera benches, go to their room and change, come back and maintain the camera, all without lugging gear up and down stairs. So easy, but then why hasn’t anyone thought of this sooner? The cabins were spacious and had portholes, which not only eliminated grim memories of cabins past, which had seemed like dungeons, but were cheery and bright and welcoming. The beds were wide enough that falling out was not a danger, and the mattresses so comfortable that it was hard to get out of bed early. Each cabin had en-suite toilets spacious enough that a morning shower would not be a rewarded with bruised shins and elbows. Individual air-conditioning controls, with remote operation for those who do not wish to leave their comfortable beds, allow the passengers to determine their own climate level of comfort.

The dining salon is on an upper deck, where all manner of nutritious food was served. If there was junk food, I didn’t see it, overwhelmed as I was by fresh watermelons, papayas and mangoes. The tables were spaced all around the lounge, allowing all the passengers to be served at once without competing for preferred space at a single table. There was a television monitor, viewable by all tables, from which divers regaled diners with their videos from the previous dive as an accompaniment to the meal service. When I found the cappuccino machine, I knew civilisation had come to dive liveaboards.

The fact that Ocean Hunter II is fully equipped with nitrox and other mixed gases for divers with specialised gear meant there was nothing further to wish for in terms of diving; the comfort level with the accommodation and food made me realise that I hadn’t been too hard on liveaboards, its just that the standard has been set by the Ocean Hunter II and had finally risen to a level where maybe being on a boat wasn’t such a bad thing. Douglas David Seifert

Itineraries: Ocean Hunter II offers five dives per day on seven and 14-day trips, which enable divers to explore the famous dive sites and remote reefs. Palau offers great Second World War wreck diving and there are more than 30 Japanese sunken ships and planes to see. Special wreck trips can be arranged. In 2007 and 2008 Ocean Hunter II will visit the remote Southwest Islands of Palau. Located 380 miles off Palau toward Papua New Guinea, this chain of islands is largely unexplored and presents a unique experience for divers.

Contact:

Ocean Hunter
00 680 488 2637
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website: www.oceanhunter.com