Day One Dives

We had a very reasonable hour on the flight this time: 11am, so we didn’t have to meet Graham until 9:15.  Last time it was more like 4am.

It was great to see everyone!  I already knew 10 of the 16 divers from previous trips.

Our very international group is:

Me

Graham Abbott from England/Bali (runs Diving4Images and organized this trip)

Christianne Waldrich from Germany/Bali (runs Villa Markisa)

Alicia (Ali) McKowen from Mexico/Florida

Dave McKowen from Florida

Pirjot Pellett from Finland/France

Francis Pellett from France

Ursula (Ula) Zimmerman from Germany/France

Gabriel (Gabby) Moulin from France

David Cowdery from Australia

Andrye from Russia

Martha Kiser from Florida

Mary Jane Stoll from California

Jim Anderson from Scotland

Lesley Anderson from Scotland

Bernard Picton is the nudibranch expert/scientist from Ireland

I'm hoping that this group will help keep me honest on identifying my nudis and tell me if I got something wrong.

Many of the crew members on the Cheng Ho are the same.  There is at least one ex-pat (I think from England) who is the cruise director.  There is one Indonesian girl on the crew this time.  She is pretty cool and drives the skiff!!!

There are also a couple of guys (Fredrik from Sweden and Wekku from Finland) who have joined the charter to shoot with a Drone/Go Pro.

Graham got in an accident on his scooter the day before the trip and is all cut up on his arms and legs!  He is still healing so he didn’t dive on the first day.

I’ve heard so much about Ali over the years it is so fun to finally meet her.  She grew up in Mexico and now lives in Florida with her husband.  She was born 10 days before me!!!  She recently had some health challenges but is now feeling great and is ready to dive. 

She has all sorts of great nudibranch stuff.  She wore a custom made rash guard with an artist’s rendering of one of her photos and she has a charm bracelet with a bunch of different nudibranchs.

Then I found out that she CROSS STITCHES!!!  What!?!?!?  She even brought her project with her on the boat.  I love to cross stitch too but I only do them at home to keep them clean.

Chistianne hasn’t been feeling well lately and her ears can’t clear, so she didn’t dive on the first day.  That would totally suck.

I was so worried that my camera would flood on the first dive.  I’m not sure why that is since I have used it before in Maldives.  It turned out it was fine… but I was pretty anxious about it.

We got two dives in today and I already got up to 11 nudis!!

1 - Nembrotha kubaryana

With my new camera I’m trying to be edgier… using a very shallow dept of field to only get a very small portion of the nudibranch in focus.

2 - Jorunna funebris

This guy was kinda choppy/funky around the edges.  When I got a good shot up really close, you could see the bumps on the white.

3 - Phyllidiella pustulosa

Yawn.

4 - Phyllidia varicosa

Double yawn.

5 - Ceratosoma trilobatum

I love how this guy has a flap over the gills.

6 - Chromodoris strigata

7 - Goniobranchus kuniei

This one was very tiny.  It used to be a Chromodoris but has been reclassified to a Goniobranchus.

8 - Pleurobranchus forskalii

This pleuri was so big I could't even get a real picture of him.

9 - Chromodoris magnifica

Right next to the pleuri, this guy was hanging out but showing only his butt.

10 - Caloria indica

Super pretty on the sponge backdrop.

11 - Hexabranchus sanguineus

The Spanish Dancer.  First night.  I tried really hard to get this in full frame.  I am several feet away from the subject.  It took a lot of Photoshop correction to get the color contrast as good as it is.

Some of the things I spotted today were too big for my new set up to be able to photograph well!  Crazy.

David cracks us up.  He is always telling us stories about diving in Australia.  We’ve taken to singing “Davey, Davey Crocket - King of the Wild Frontier” whenever he starts up with a new story. 

I was so tired at 11pm that I couldn’t keep my eyes open to finish organizing my photos.