On Sun, 22 May 2005 09:56:32 +0800, Robert Delfs <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>I forgot to mention in my last reply, but it's interesting that you
>should speculate whether the boat that was spun like a top was the
>Komodo Dancer.  The Ombak Putih (which, as I said, I was on when it was
>spun in the whirlpool of Padar Is.) is actually the much bigger sister
>ship to the Ombak Biru, which is the Komodo Dancer.

True.  <The Ombak Biru IS the Komodo Dancer! as you said later.>

I immediately thought of the Komodo Dancer because of your initial
description of a 90-foot liveaboard -- which is what the Komodo
Dancer is.  It looked like a Chinese junk with huge sails in the
design of dive flags!  Now the BOAT would be easy to spot at sea or
by air.


> It was the Ombak Putih, a large Phinisi schooner, adequately powered,
> actually more like 120 ft, and I was on it.

So it was a bigger "junk"?  :-)  Those are not exactly known for
their manoeuverability with the tall-ship sails.  And I suspect
they don't have any jet-powered tenders (because I didn't see them
described as in other Dancer boats) to chase down divers.


>Peter Hughes doesn't actually have his own boat in Komodo. Hughes has a
>contract with Guido Brink, so many trips a year.  When Hughes books out
>the boat for Hughes guests, then the Ombak Biru "becomes" the Komodo
>Dancer.  The rest of the time, you can charter the boat under its real
>name.  At one point, I think the Hughes people may have had their own
>DMs on board when the boat was operating as a Hughes boat, but I don't
>think that's always the case anymore, and except for this arrangement
>with Guido Brink (whose company owns both boats), the Hughes
>organization doesn't have a real presence here.

That's fairly "standard" Hughes practice.   First, to have their
Dancer boats operated and owned by LOCALS greatly reduced Peter's
liability of being sued by the litigous 'Merkins.  Second, if sued,
as in the hurricane-sunken Wave Dancer in Belize, the ownership
and crews being Bellzeans helped Hughes got insurance settlement
through the Belize courts, keeping 'Merkin sharks at bay, more or
less.


>We chartered the Putih, the larger sister ship because (1) the Biru was
>already booked to take a group of divers to Wakatobi the time we wanted
>to go; and (2) we had a lot of non-diving family members - elderly and
>small children - aboard for our trip, and the Putih is a larger and
>slightly more comfortable boat than the Biru or most of the other
>liveaboads operating in the park, including the boats we tend to use
>for a smaller group, all or most of whom are diving.
>
>Robert

da Feeesh.

P.S.  Just came back from a non-diving 1-night-stand weekend trip. :-)
I had written about the incredible perk we had at the Chicago downtown
Hyatt when we visited John Nitrox -- we had a two-bedroom suit with
more amenities than a shiek's harem, for something like $99 or $109.

Last night, we had one of the LARGE suites at an ATL Hyatt with a
"traveller book coupon" price of $69, and that suit had a dining
room table (looked about 15 feet long) for a seating of EIGHT  :-)
It had more amenities than two shieks' harems.

Has anyone seen the movie "Kung Fu Hustle"?  We went to see it
yesterday not knowing anything about it other than a "A-" rating
in the Choo Choo newspaper and it wasn't shown in Choo Choo.
It was a HOOT!

-- Bob.