We were greeted by some soon to be new friends when we arrived at a small restaurant in a local village in Bali and all of us were excited to share where we were from and what we were looking forward to on our journey aboard the Arenui. We first met Tracy and Dana who are from Michigan along with Glena who is from Colorado. A few minutes later a familiar face appeared walking up from the dock at the restaurant. It was Wawan, one of the dive-masters who was on our last trip aboard the Arenui. After hugs and big hellos we asked him who else would be working on the cruise with us. He informed us our dive-master from last year, Ali was on vacation and would not be on our cruise. While we were sad he would not be with us we still knew it would be an excellent trip. Luggage was loaded and we were whisked across the bay to our home for the next 12 days.
Here is a tour of the Arenui Boutique Liveaboard!
Our relaxing and massage area
This will be the gathering place, where we will have our breakfasts, lunch, snacks and occasional dinners.
Here is where we will have dinner most evenings under the stars.
Our sleeping quarters for the next 12 days
As we embarked on the Arenui we saw the owner, Luigi and his wife waiting to greet us, a very nice surprise. Jerry and Debbie the cruise directors were great to see and are probably the finest hosts one could ask for on a liveaboard. Our other friends arrived in the next tender to more big hugs and then we prepared to leave port for a full day of traveling across the sea to the first destination. The day was very relaxed, eating, getting to know everyone we didn’t know and catching up with those we did.
Seas became a bit rough and Jessica needed to sleep to avoid seasickness so we headed to bed and looked forward to our first day of diving.