 |
Infiniti
Liveaboard - Tubbataha reefs - Philippines
[Description below provided by Infiniti Liveabaord -
infinitiliveaboard.com]
The internationally acclaimed
Infiniti is now operating scuba diving liveaboard trips
in the pristine and rich blue waters of the Philippines.
Come and dive those bucket list adventure trips in
Tubbataha, Visayas and Malapascua with our expert
onboard team of scuba instructors & dive masters.
One of the best ways to explore the world's oceans and
seas is to venture out on a liveaboard cruise.
Together with other happy divers, you will be
transferred directly from the airport to the comfortable
boat that will be your home during a fantastic few days. |
| The Infiniti has
a highly qualified onboard team with a diverse skill
set. There are three operational verticals onboard:
shipping, diving & hospitality.
Accordingly the crew is a team
of captain, navigational officers, engineers; PADI dive
masters; dedicated chef & assistant; and deck hands &
boat boys.
We understand that you have travelled a long way to get
to this corner of the world, and look forward to showing
you the amazing Philippines & to help you relax & enjoy
your onboard stay.
You will share a cabin which is fully equipped with
sheets, towels, an en-suite bathroom and air
conditioning. Delicious & nutritious meals are freshly
prepared in the on-board kitchen by a dedicated chef,
and are served in the dining area. There are relaxation
areas such as a lounge with sofas and entertainment,
sundecks with loungers and mattresses, and the dive deck
provides ample space for you to kit up and dive from.
Diving is also done from the boat's RIB's.
|
 |
 |
The Infiniti is a 39 meter (133 ft) all steel vessel
with four decks.
All inside areas are air conditioned.
Newly renovated, spacious guest rooms all with en-suite
bathrooms, flat screen TVs, safety boxes, picture
windows and plenty storage have been designed to
maximize guest comfort and to make you feel right at
home during your stay.
Delicious & nutritious meals and refreshments are
prepared in the onboard kitchen & served buffet style in
the large dining room. Fresh fruits , snacks, alcoholic
and non alcoholic beverages ( no extra charge) available.
The Infiniti live-aboard was custom designed & specially
constructed by divers for divers in Thailand (2013). |
|
Reaching
the Infiniti In our
case we flew to manila International airport, from there
you’ll need to go to the Manila domestic airport (keep
in mind that this could take up to several hours, due to
the (default) traffic jams in Manila).
From the domestic airport you
can pick a flight (in our case Cebu Pacific) towards
Puerto Princessa (International Airport….). Yes, they
state it’s an International airport, however it’s one of
the smallest airports I’ve ever seen……
It will take you about an hour
to fly from Manila to Puerto Princessa.
You will be transferred from the Puerto Princessa
airport by the Infiniti crew towards a small harbor
where the Infiniti resides. This trip will only take 20
minutes or so… |
|
 |
The arrival
The crew will
take care of all your luggage. Once onboard you’ll get a
warm welcome from the crew, and you’ll be invited in the
main lounge for a welcome drink and the boat briefing.
After that you’ll be assigned to your cabin. The crew
will make sure that all of your luggage is in your cabin. |
|
The cabins
Our cabin resides on the upper deck, and was quite large!
It contains 2 separate single beds, a small desk with a
chair and a large closed with a safety box in it. It has
one big window with a great view.
The en-suite bathroom contains
your toilet, sink and a seperate shower cabin. The water is
desalinated water, and not suitable for drinking, warm
water is generated via a small (personal) boiler.
In the cabin there is 1 ceiling ventilator and an
air-conditioning available.
In the room there are also a couple of electrical
outlets available (220 volt, 2 pin fits EU standard).
Electricity was always
available during our entire stay.
Housekeeping will take care of your cabin every day.
This includes the cleaning, make your beds and changing
the towels. All done very well! |
 |
Hover over picture to enlarge |
The Infiniti facilities
The Infiniti has 11 cabins (5 lower, 4 main and 2 at the
upper deck).
The main lounge located on
the 2nd (main) deck.
There is one large indoor lounge, which is used as the
dining room, briefing area and relax room. It has plenty
of table’s chairs and sofas. There is also a (very)
large TV screen, a library with magazines and books. It
has several watercoolers and refrigerators filled with
al kind of drinks.
All drinks are included on this trip!
Outdoor lounge area is
located on the 3rd (upper) deck.
One the 3th deck you’ll find besides some cabins and the
camera room, an outdoor lounge. This is an area with
some tables and sofas with a nice view to the back of
the ship.
|
|
The sundeck is located on
the 4th deck.
It’s a large open area with at the back a small roof.
This is also the (only) smoking area onboard.
It has loungers and a couple of hammocks, a great place
to relax !!
The dive deck is located on
the 2nd (main) deck, behind the main lounge.
This is also where your tanks will be filled via the
compressor.
The deck is separated in 2 areas, one for each group.
This is where you put on your gear in order to go (via
the stairs) to the actual dive deck at the back of the
ship. From there you will enter the dinghy (zodiac).
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Main lounge |
Outdoor lounge |
Sundeck |
Dive Deck |
|
Connectivity Well,
with regards to the connectivity we can be quite short;
there isn’t any!
A couple of hours after you leave the harbor of Puerto
Princessa, there will be radio silence….
There is no phone or data (WiFi) connectivity at all.
There is a satellite phone available on the bridge;
however this is only for emergencies.
|
|
Chef Kim |
The food
A very important topic!
Because you’re 180 KM away
from shore, it’s quite hard to find a Mc Donald out
there…
Well no worries on the Infiniti, Chef ‘Kim’ will take
care of you!
In the (early) morning you can
enjoy a light breakfast, before your first dive. After
the first dive a full (continental) breakfast will be
served. Around noon lunch will be served, this is also a
great variety of Asian and Western food, the same goes
for the dinner.
The quality of the food is very good, and all freshly
made by the chef Kim and his team!
If you are a diabetic and / or have any type of food
allergy or if you have a preference or disapprove for a
certain type of food it will be taken into account.
The only thing you should
worry about is not to gain too much weight during your
trip…
|
|
The dive location:
Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park Tubbataha
was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993.
The Tubbataha Reef Marine Park covers 130,028
hectare Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Palawan,
including the North and South Reefs.
It is located 150km southeast of Puerto Princesa City in
the middle of the Sulu Sea, at the heart of the Coral
Triangle, the global centre of marine biodiversity
Therefore it can only be visited on a liveaboard boat.
It is a unique example of an atoll reef with a very high
density of marine species; the North Islet serving as a
nesting site for birds and marine turtles. The site is
an excellent example of a pristine coral reef with a
spectacular 100-m perpendicular wall, extensive lagoons
and two coral islands. |
 |
Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park
lies in a unique position in the centre of the Sulu Sea,
and includes the Tubbataha and Jessie Beazley Reefs.
It protects the marine habitats containing three atolls
and a large area of deep sea. |
 |
The property is
home to a great diversity of marine life. Whales,
dolphins, sharks, turtles and Napoleon wrasse are
amongst the key species found here. Scientists have been
visiting these reefs since the 1980s, and their research
has shown that Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park is home to
no less than:
- 600 species of fish
- 360 species of corals (about half of all coral species
in the world)
- 13 species of sharks
- 13 species of dolphins & whales
- 100 species of birds
- And also nesting Hawksbill & Green sea turtles.
The reserve also protects one of the few remaining
colonies of breeding seabirds in the region.
|
Marine Park Rangers
The ranger station perched on the southernmost tip of
Tubbataha’s North Atoll is home to a combined team of
10-12 men from the Philippine Navy, Philippine Coast
Guard, Municipality of Cagayancillo and the TMO.
Stationed for two months at a time, 130 kilometres from
the nearest inhabited islands, their job is to protect
the park from illegal activities including fishing and
collection of other marine life such as top shells (Trochus
niloticus).
Their work includes:
- Regular patrols around the park
- Conducting scientific research and monitoring
- Briefing visitors during the dive season |
 |
- Surface and
underwater cleanups
- Reporting and responding to unusual incidents, like
crown-of-thorns starfish infestations. |
 |
As a visiting diver you play a key
role in Tubbataha's future, as your conservation fees
provide the funds we need to protect the park from
illegal exploitation.
For more information or donations please visit:
www.tubbatahareef.org |
The diving
Diving, what else do you do on a live aboard?….
Before I continue I have to mention that during our trip
the weather conditions were far from optimal. We
encountered strong winds, which caused large waves. Due
to these waves, lots of sand were washed from the top of
the reef, which caused a terrible visibility.
Also because of these strong winds we were not able to
dive most of the dive locations located at the Westside
of the reef.
Besides that, I always mention in our reviews that we
are very ‘spoiled’ divers… we’ve been diving all over
the world on all kind of top locations. Therefore the
interpretation of our dive experience might differ from
less ‘spoiled’ divers….
|
|
|
 |
We made 17 dives during our trip on the Infiniti.
The dive operation is very well organized by the crew;
you dive in fixed groups with a fixed dive guide. Every
dive you’ll be transferred from the Infiniti towards the
reef with a dinghy (zodiac) and vice versa.
After the
first dive of the day you receive a towel, which will be
changes every day.
The guides are experienced and very helpful.
|
The dives
Let’s start with one of the most
important criteria; the visibility.
We encountered often a poor visibility, due to the
reasons we’ve mentioned earlier, only on a couple of
dives the visibility was ‘acceptable’.
Sometimes we experienced a visibility of max. 10 meter,
due to that we probably ‘missed’ a lot of the ‘big
stuff’. (Only one small whale shark was spotted by
another diver during our entire trip)
That said, we’ll continue to the water temperatures,
these fluctuate from 26 till 29 Celsius, which is a very
comfortable temperature!
Marine life:
The biodiversity on the reef is great, you can see that
all the corals are healthy and it’s overwhelmed with
small (and young) fish. The colors are outrages! From
that you can see that this is an extremely healthy reef.
Also the manta’s, which are common here, were probably
hiding for us as well….
So, with the exception of 2 dives on the Delsan Wreck,
we didn’t encounter a lot of action and big fish. |
 |
 |
That doesn’t mean that it was all bad…. We made some
great dives on Tubbataha!
As mentioned before we are ‘spoiled’ divers, and maybe
our expectations where a little bit too high.
We had quite some ‘less’ experienced divers onboard for
them every dive was a fairytale coming true.
On Tubbataha, it’s more or less ‘normal’ that you’ll see
at least one or more (small) whitetip, nurse or grey
sharks on every dive, that also counts for turtles,
trevallies, barracudas and Tunas. And as mentioned it’s
an true oasis of colors with all the small fish on top
of the reefs.
For us the highlights of this trip were 2 dives on the
Delsan wreck, on this dive location we saw the action
where we were looking for. Surrounded by big schools of
jacks and at least 20 sharks these were the dives we
expected to see more often on Tubbataha.
|
|
Our
evaluation
Our ratings below are based on our personal
experiences. They are also adapted to our needs
as divers. Meaning that we’re less focused on
additional features.
Therefore you should only pay attention to our
ratings if you’re planning a diving holiday.
Where we base our score
on:
|
Accommodation: |
Room size, beds,
cleaning, bathroom, location,
environmentally friendly, etc. |
|
Facilities: |
Pool, sport activities,
organized trips, TV,
Internet, phone, etc. (If applicable) |
| Dive
operations: |
Quality of equipment, boats, crew, dive
guides, location, service, marine
conservation, etc. |
|
Scoring
matrix
 |
|
|
