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My husband and I are both divers and we dived with Blue Marlin with our sons aged 10, 8 and 5.
We travelled to Labuan Bajo from Bali and we took a quick taxi to the hotel that we had chosen none of the resorts are far from the airport.
There would have been an option to stay at Blue Marlin but we decided to spend a few days at a luxury hotel with a swimming pool.

When we arrived at Blue Marlin we were greeted by the friendly manager and liveaboard director Chris and we enjoyed a few drinks on the terrace at Blue Marlin. It would be hard to beat the view from their restaurant. The food is also delicious a great place to have sundowners.

The trip on the liveaboard was only for a few days as we had non divers on board in the form of grandparents and two of our sons were non-divers. Ikan Biru is a beautiful Indonesian wooden pinisi boat and for children it looks like a pirate ship so they were very excited from the off set.

My children were all confident swimmers at the time. If your children couldn't swim I would not recommend going on the liveaboard but this was not an issue in our case.

My eldest son had recently completed his PADI Open Water Course with Blue Marlin in Gili Trawangan and had already many dives under his belt so we were keen to show him the next level of diving having previously visited Komodo years earlier.

My younger son aged 8 had done many "PADI bubblemakers "and was also confident in the water and my 5 year old was a keen snorkellor. Every Summer my children have been visiting Gili Trawangan an idyllic paradise island close to Lombok so this was and now share our passion for the underwater world.

Ikan Biru, being a smaller live aboard enabled us to charter the boat privately and with the childrens' grandparents on board this gave us the opportunity to be able to take a break for some diving for ourselves. It also gave us the opportunity to get our recently qualified young diver in the water.
Giving our son the opportunity to dive the national park at such a young age was important to us to inflame his passion for diving. We were so lucky the trip did not disappoint. Komodo National Park is absolutely beautiful and the under water world is captivating.

The marine life in Komodo National Park is literally out of this world, teeming with colourful corals, majestic marine mammals, and an abundance of fish species. .My sons aged 8 and 5 were swimming face to face with turtles who popped their heads on to the surface. A dugong also came up to say hello next to the tender boat (unfortunately I missed this!!) and mantas were in abundance for the divers.. Vibrant reef fish dart amongst intricate coral formations, while elusive creatures like pygmy seahorses and frogfish hide amidst the coral branches.

Sleeping on deck was absolutely fantastic. Sleeping under the stars was a fabulous experience for us all. A wonderful way for the children to connect with nature - along with no internet connection on board Ikan Biru offers a therapeutic escape from the hustle and bustle of modern life.
On our short trip we even managed to visit the Komodo dragons - truly magnificent creatures - they really do look like something out of Jurassic Park. I definitely was happy to keep at a safe distance from them.

All in all we had a wonderful time on Ikan Biru. It really felt like a step back in time and an opportunity to connect with nature which I think is really magical in a world dominated by technology. We look forward to visiting Komodo and the Blue Marlin team soon.