History of Ocean Hunter II

Following 12 years of operation with “Ocean Hunter I” in Palau, owners Navot and Tova Bornovski were searching for the ultimate liveaboard to Palau.

In 2003 the perfect vessel showed up in Australia it called “The Harry Messel”. The Harry Messel was built in the mid 1970’s as a research vessel for AIMS (Australian Institute of Marine Science), serving the universities of Sidney and Townsville marine departments along with special projects for the Australian government, the ship visited almost every coast line and reef from Japan to the north, Antarctica to the south, Hawaii to the east and Indonesia to the west. In August 2003 The Harry Messel now renamed as OCEAN HUNTER II left Australia for good and sailed to Palau. On Nov 2003 the Ocean Hunter II left for Cebu Philippines for a complete refit. At their own Cebu Yacht Club Facility Mr. Milo Osmena and Mr. Jaco Soler supervised the refit and transformation of the old research vessel into state of the art liveaboard. On March 2004 the new Ocean Hunter II left for a 33 days charter in the Philippines islands.

May 2004 the Ocean Hunter II arrived Palau and immediately started her charters, taking divers to the pristine reefs of Palau.

About the Bornovskis

Tova and Navot Bornovski are the owners and managers of the Ocean Hunter I, Ocean Hunter II and Fish 'n Fins, the pioneer dive shop in Palau. They bring decades of dive time to the table. This intrepid couple traversed the seas on a 4-year around-the-world sailing trip in the '80s and fell in love with Palau. They began to work on the first liveaboard to dive Palau, the highly acclaimed Sun-Tamarin. Tova and Navot worked as cook and dive master, respectively, for more than a year from 1986 to 1987, deepening their bond with Palau. In 1993 after Navot had graduated as a Naval Architect and Mechanical Engineer in Israel, the Bornovskis returned to Palau, alongside friend Francis "Mr. Dive Palau" Toribiong. This time the Bornovskis crossed the Pacific in their newly- remodeled luxurious liveaboard, the Ocean Hunter, accompanied by their children Yarden (4) and Udi (3) at the time. Ever since, the Ocean Hunter has had a happy home in Palau and has taken out more than 350 groups of divers, all pampered by the same friendly family service provided by the Bornovskis and their experienced crew family. Yarden and Udi were joined by Liam and Gayl, born in Palau. They love meeting the children of divers venturing to Palau.