OFF THE CHART EXPEDITIONS
Research and Discovery liveaboard trips to remote areas
Research and Discovery liveaboard trips to remote areas
Between two of the world’s greatest dive destinations (Raja Ampat & Komodo) lie the islands of the Banda Sea. A world of marine life still relatively unknown to the worldwide diving community, is home to not only some incredible pelagic life (Schooling Hammerheads anyone?), but is also to incredible macro life like the hairy octopus and Ambon scorpionfish.
Our Myanmar expeditions just get better every year. After our first ever Off the Chart adventure in 2017, we went further still in 2018 on our Way Out West odyssey. Black Rock was at it’s mind blowing best with over 40 Manta Rays ID’d in just two days! In 2019 we saw some of the highest productivity ever in the Andaman Sea and discovered new exciting Burma Banks.
Need help deciding which trip?
Off the Chart Expeditions lift a typical scuba diving liveaboard to new and exciting levels. Born out of a passion for exploration and a long history of enjoying life on dive boats our bespoke expeditions offer what we consider to be the ultimate dive trip.
With a limited number of expeditions per year and a limited number of available spaces, each trip offers an exclusive, tailor made itinerary to some of the world’s best and most remote dive locations.
We hand pick the best dive locations worldwide with a focus on more remote, inaccessible spots that offer incredible underwater experiences.
As well as diving only the best sites an area has to offer we are always speculating what sites lie over the horizon, what lies further Off the Chart.
We only visit our chosen locations at the right time of year, when diving conditions are at their best and with the best chance of stunning wildlife encounters.
Due to our close involvement with the Marine Megafauna Foundation most of our expeditions support and participate in manta ray research and conservation.
Our dive guides work tirelessly year-round planning our expeditions. Deciding where and when to go, deciding who will co-host our activities and environmental causes, providing excellent customer support and co-ordinating with boat operators around the world are our main areas of expertise where we excel.
When enrolling in an Off the Chart Expedition, the people you deal with in the months preceding your trip are the same people you will dive with once we get underway. We are there to ensure everything goes to plan. When we choose our local operators we apply the same stringent attention to detail to ensure we pick the best local partners.
Over the past seven years, Off the Chart Founder, Ric Parker has been involved with many Ray of Hope Expeditions with senior scientists from the Marine Megafauna Foundation. Our expeditions are an extension of the research work done by the MMF and are co-hosted with some of the world’s leading experts in manta ray research.
Each year Off the Chart continues to grow and evolve to offer more diverse activities to our divers. In 2018 our expeditions will also include an onboard professional underwater photographer who will hold workshops and coach our guests who dive with cameras. Like all involved with our trips, we select only the best professionals.
Fancy Myanmar and the famed Burma Banks in March 2020?
Great dive destinations, comfortable liveaboards, talented hosts and professional staff provide the basic platform for our epic adventures. However, it’s our guests who join us who really mould each expedition into long lasting, memorable experiences.
Most of our guests have dived with us before, whether out on expedition or possibly on one of the many liveaboards we’ve worked on over the years. Some have been diving with us for over a decade and have become lifelong friends. They in turn introduce new friends to our trips and so our diving family continues to grow.
Off the Chart attracts divers from all over the world. Both staff and guests are very like-minded divers. We enjoy the social side of being out on a liveaboard as much as we enjoy our time underwater.
Especially important when out on expeditions discovering new dive spots, we take each dive as it comes and accept that we will not always strike it lucky. If conditions throw a spanner in the works we do not dwell on below average days, we have some fun and look forward to the next day’s diving.
We love diving, we get away on a boat together for worthwhile causes, we create a friendly social atmosphere and have the time of our lives whilst on expedition. We’re even known to write songs about the trips and nobody mixes gin and tonic and other cocktails better than us.
If all this is sounding like you why not contact us about joining and upcoming expedition. We currently run two expeditions every year, one to Myanmar, our signature expedition and another to destination further afield that offers remote, world class diving.
When planning expeditions we pay particular attention to the dive liveaboards we charter. Our guests are not seeking the upmost luxury, but we do have strict standards of quality and safety to uphold. We chose our boats primarily on their reputation for seaworthiness, professionalism of their crews and inventory of mandatory safety equipment.
Off the Chart Expedition boats are usually of steel construction, feature a range of cabins to suit various budgets and offering at least some en-suite cabins. All expedition boats must have dry indoor areas for our scientific presentations and underwater camera prepping. A decent Thai chef on board is also one of the things we look for too.
I first started running liveaboards to Myanmar in 2005. We would use a nautical chart produced by the British Navy’s Hydrographic Office in 1975 to plan our routes and dives. The Mergui Archipelago is a much more complex destination to the relatively simple trips I also ran around the Similan Islands in Thailand.
I would roll out the chart and explain our rough route and itinerary to our guests. The route only covered a fraction of the total chart area. Looking at the chart and also whilst cruising around the islands I was often asked, “What’s it like here?” or “Can we dive over at those islands?”
We often went to find out and in doing so my passion for discovery style diving was born. Still to this day I love jumping in somewhere new with a group of divers behind me with absolutely no idea what we will find. Adventurous as this was, I was still confined by range and fuel constraints, adventure was restricted to the southern portion of the Mergui Archipelago.
From 2009, whilst working for Siam Adventure Divers on MV Similan Jazz we began to run longer nine day discovery style expeditions further north and eventually west into Myanmar. Often we did not discover anything more spectacular than we already knew but the excitement these trips created ignited a spark within. Visiting these remote areas, even though a few had been here before was a wonderful feeling, a bit Cousteau style I guess.
In 2011, our annual discovery trip was an event that would shape my diving future. It was the trip when I first dived with Dr Andrea Marshall from the MMF. I was a little star struck at the time but was also inspired in a very profound manner. If Andrea could dedicate a huge portion of her life to the study and conservation of manta rays then I surely, as a diver could also contribute more than simply taking people diving. Was this a major event in my life, it probably was.
So seven years later, having gone on many a manta expedition with either Dr Marshall or two other equally inspiring scientists, Dr Fabrice Jaine and Anna Flam I finally tied all the aspects I love about diving with our first ever Off the Chart Expedition to Myanmar.
It was the first time we married exploration and manta research together. We pushed so far north into Mergui we fell Off the Chart. We dived with mantas at Black Rock and we had an amazing time onboard doing all this. I knew as we topped the top of the chart that we had something, something that would allow us to discover more of the world whilst furthering worthy conservation work and as part of the process, have a jolly good time. I steal from Katja when I say, it was the best trip ever. With Off the Chart Expeditions there is now the chance for many more. – Ric Parker