The wind howls and the sea churns as we stare out from the deck of the M/V FeBrina liveaboard. The guests look a little anxious.

“I want you to erase our previously planned itinerary from your minds,” announces Capt. Alan Raabe with a confident and thick Australian bark. “Because we’re doing some- thing even better, and the island’s mountains will keep the wind from beating the crap out of us!” Fortunately, plan B in Papua New Guinea defies comparison. Dives on newly discovered sites such as Lilua Island Reef, with explosions of soft corals in rainbow shades, captivate everyone. The seamounts are all gloriously smothered with hard corals and teeming with life. We’re escorted by hordes of batfish, jacks, fusiliers and anthias in endless visibility. And if that’s not enough, most sites have huge schools of barracuda performing an ever-changing dance of shape and motion.

Divemasters Josie and Digger accompany us on every dive, constantly showing us the intriguing and impossible. At Leslie’s Knob, Josie finds a tiny boxer crab performing its cheerleaderlike antics for my camera. On Norman’s Knob it’s not unusual to have a turtle completely eclipse the subject I’m framing, just to peer in my dome port and say hello.

Four to five nitrox dives a day can be exhausting, but the crew works tirelessly to keep us well fed and hydrated. The last day, we end up moored behind tiny Restorf Island. In the quiet lee of the island we indulge in our private paradise. The site’s festooned with yellow prawn gobies, comical percula clownfish, industrious rock mover wrasse and striking blue ribbon eels. Sunset is finally welcomed by fully waterlogged but satiated divers. We never see another vessel, and the schools of fish seem bigger and more numerous here than any place in my recent memory. The only other humans we encounter are in dug-out canoes. It does not get more rare than that. And to a person, we would gladly do plan B all over again.

TRIP HIGHLIGHTS

Day 3
Up-close-and- personal shark encounters are the highlight at Killibob’s Knob, a ridge where enthusiastic gray reefs, whitetips and the occasional silvertip shark come in for a nibble from Josie’s bait box.

Day 4
Don’t miss the opportunity to find a flamboyant broken-back shrimp. We had a great moment with one of the elusive shrimp walking on the edge of a barrel sponge on the night dive at Ake’s Reef.

Day 7
Explore Father’s Arch — from a large seamount you’ll follow a rope down to a smaller, deeper seamount that is truly spectacular. The arch is covered in brilliant soft corals with pulsing shoals of shimmering fish.

Day 8
Spend the day diving or snorkeling behind the protected island of Restorf. Here you can delight in swimming with the circling baby black- tip sharks or dive deeper in search of the weird and wonderful.

TRIP TIPS

Stay Extra Nights
Ease into the time change by arriving a day or two early and staying in a charming tropical bungalow at Walindi Plantation Resort, from which the Febrina departs.

Go Birding
Walindi will set up a dawn or dusk walk with an expert bird guide to seek out some of the endemic tropical birds of the Bismarck Archipelago. Or, when the sun goes down, see the fireflies light up the night.

Bathe in a Hot Spring
Take a 50-minute drive to a local spring-fed river and bathe in water heated by the volcano with swirling pools, mini waterfalls and sticky mud. Then stop for a peek at WWII planes such as the abandoned NZ4522 and a B-25H Mitchell.

Village Life
Visit a nearby village and learn a bit more about the culture on PNG and the way the local people live, or witness the hustle and bustle at the Kimbe market.

THE BOAT

M/V FeBrina
Total passengers: 12
Cabins: 7
Total crew: 12
Length: 73 feet
Beam: 20 feet
Number of decks: 3
walindifebrina.com

IN DEPTH

For those looking to solidify plan A, FeBrina offers seven- to 10-night itineraries throughout Papua New Guinea, including the Fathers Reefs, Kimbe Bay, Milne Bay, Rabaul and the Witu Islands. To reach the Walindi resort and FeBrina liveaboard, you can take a short flight into Hoskins Airport in Kimbe from the Port Moresby airport.