Awaiting at the Driftwood Hotel in Alotau to be picked up by our ride for the next ten days we meet up with our fellow divers. They drift in in ones and twos. There doesn’t seem to be a crowd and in fact there is only seven passenger’s total. Less than ½ a boatload, one Australian, one Scotsman living in Australia, one Brit, one Brit living in Canada, one Slovenian, and two Canuks.
We are met on board by Captain Dan who will be our host and driver for the trip. Dan is also the owner of the boat. There is 10 crew and since there are only 7 guests the ratio is more than 1 to 1.
First impression is the boat is very well maintained. The owner is aboard 24/7 so all the little things are noticed and taken care of. The cabins are a bit small with very little storage but we make it work and don’t have any real issues. The others are one to a room so they have ample space, they did mention that with 2 in the room it would be cramped.
Debbie and I have been travelling on luxury live a boards of late and the Oceania is not quite up to those standards. The divers are responsible for rinsing and storing their own gear after each dive, the food is very good but not gourmet, there are no hot drinks or towels waiting on the dive deck when you surface and small things like the room towels are not replaced each day so they are always wet to damp because we shower after each dive.
There is only one tender that tags along with the mother ship so most of the dives are off the back deck of the Oceania. This means that most of the dives are not drift dives. There is plenty of current and since the tender is not regularly used one must swim against the current for at least part of every dive to get back to the boat. I found this hard work and once we did not make it back and had to get picked up in the blue.
One thing we really liked is all the cabins are on the main deck. In case of an emergency the escape route would be a lot quicker with no stairs impeding egress. Captain Dan did the boat briefing shortly after we arrived and the safety section was one of the most comprehensive, we have ever heard, that too has been on our minds since reading about all the boat disasters on the Red Sea and how the safety briefing is all but non existent. It was nice to know there is a detailed plan if an emergency should arrive.
All in all, the boat functions very well and the entire trip went off with very few hitches. If we go back to Papua I would not shy away from joining the Oceania for another voyage.
