Nudi Gal: December 2018

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Home Again

I’m tired. I slept right up until my checkout time. I hope I will still sleep on the plane home.

I did order in a pizza to the room and it wasn’t bad.

I was the only person on the shuttle to the airport. Go figure.

Then when I checked into EVA Air (extremely early), they didn’t like the batteries in my heated vest. So they took it out and rescanned it and asked me again about it. In the end, they let the bag go through.

Now I’m trying to entertain myself in the Taiwan Airport for a few hours before we board the flight.

It’s going to take me a while to correct all the pictures that got messed up and to finish my overall nudi count. I am actually kinda looking forward to getting it all organized and published to the blog.

Here are my overall final numbers (combined):

90 dives bringing me to 1891 lifetime dives.

X distinct species of nudibranch <I’m still figuring this out>

Until next time:

Remain Curious, Neutrally Buoyant and Remember to Turn Things Over.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Ugly American

Today starts the journey home.

Villa Markisa gave me these really cool steel water bottles. Although we were delayed, my flight was uneventful. I made it thru customs and claimed my bags and then went to go find this bus pick up spot. I found it and nobody else was in line so I stood as the first person and many people lined up behind me.

The bus arrived on time but it was already pretty full. I put my camera bag up there and then went to the back to load my other two bags… all these Chinese people were pushing onto the van and wouldn’t let me back on. What a clusterfuck. I made a big deal about it that my bags were now on the shuttle and I needed to get on. This kind Australian dude let me know that there was an open seat in front of him… now if I could just get to it and confirm that my camera bag was still there. Somehow I climbed over bags (maybe people) and got to that seat and confirmed my camera bag had made it on the shuttle. WTF people!?!?!? I was the first in line waiting. The driver called back to the hotel to let them know that they needed to send another shuttle for the others.

By the time I was checking in, it was after 1am and the hotel told me I needed to check out by noon. I fought back on that one too… I was told over email that I would definitely get late checkout. My flight was not until 8pm. They gave me at least a 2pm checkout. I guess that’s good enough. Grrr…

Friday, December 28, 2018

And now I'm tired.

Today is the last day of diving. Three dives. To be honest, I’m fine with it. I can’t keep up with my blog and IDs and I’m just tired. I guess that is a good thing. I’ve had my fill and there is still work on this trip I’ll need to do into the new year.

I just need some variety in my life right now. I feel like I have been doing the exact same thing for a month now and I’m ready to do something different.

I am also worried my camera will flood today.

But, my camera did just fine today. I made it through my last three dives. So I did every single dive that was available to me.

Or so I thought… Nina reminded me that I paid for a 20 dive package and I only did 19. She’s going to carry it forward for my next visit here. Because you know I’m coming back. J

Now, I’m tired. I slept all afternoon, got up and had dinner and went back to sleep.

Here are the nudis I saw on my last day:

164 - Flabellina sp. 2

165 - Polybranchia jannae

166 - Dermatobranchus albus

167 - Elysia tomentosa

168 - Phanerophthalmus sp. 9 "anetteae"

169 - Baeolidia lunaris

170 - Tenellia sp. 20

171 - Trapania palmula

172 - Nembrotha cristata

173 - Trapania sp. 20

174 - Cratena sp. 4

175 - Sakuraeolis kirembosa

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Took My Breath Away...

Today is my last full day of diving.

On the first dive I had a moment where I was concentrating on an itty bitty slug and trying to get the shot when I realized I had forgotten to breathe. OMG. And then I freaked out a little… and took a few deep breaths but wow, it was a weird moment.

I found a HUGE frogfish by myself and took a selfie but it was a horrible shot. I forget that with the Go Pro I have to hold my hand still for a long time after.

On the night dive we had a HUGE temperature swing from 82 degrees down to 73 degrees. COLD! And right after we came back up to the warm water, my camera started fogging. It was right when we got to an algae patch and I was like huh, my photos seem to be all smudgy like the algae. What is going on? Then I looked at the lens and it was all fogged up. Damn. I have used moisture munchers in the past but I haven’t had this issue all month… and it has been years since I’ve had it. Then after the dive when I opened up the housing, it seems there was more water in the housing than just condensation, but the water detector never went red. Gah. This makes me really nervous for taking it down again. I tried to dab away and moisture I saw and left it open overnight to see if it will completely dry out. I’m also going to throw a couple of moisture munchers in there.

125 - Hypselodoris rudmani

126 - Limenandra fusiformis

127 - Phyllodesmium iriomotense

128 - Phyllidiopsis cardinalis

129 - Samla sp. 1

130 - Dendronotus regius

131 - Aegires flores

132 - Siphopteron sp. 4

133 - Nembrotha kubaryana

134 - Haminoea sp. 2

135 - Tenellia sp. 26

136 - Unidentia sp.

137 - Flabellina delicata

138 - Tenellia sp. 67

139 - Facelinid sp. 3

140 - Sohgenia palauensis

141 - Cerberilla albopunctata

142 - Flabellina sp. 5

143 - Verconia romeri

144 - Facelina sp. 4

145 - Tenellia sp. 54

146 - Doto sp. 6

147 - Glossodoris acosti

148 - Hypselodoris roo

149 - Haminoea sp. 1

150 - Phyllidiopsis shireenae

151 - Rostanga sp. 2

152 - Bornella hermanni

153 - Tenellia sp. 27

154 - Tambja victoriae

155 - Jorunna sp. 6

156 - Atagema intecta

157 - Platydoris pulchra

158 - Aplysia sp.

159 - Jorunna sp. 8

160 - Miamira miamirana

161 - Dendrodoris fumata

162 - Goniobranchus collingwoodi

163 - Samla riwo

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Help! I can't keep up!

I woke up to another dream that I was taking an effective communications class and I totally failed the test (well, a D-). But this girl I know, Amy, passed. I think I’m sleeping too much! That’s when I have bad dreams.

On afternoon dive had to share a guide and my right strobe stopped flashing. I think because the button on the bottom was pressed in when it should be out. After the dive I was troubleshooting and this seemed to fix the problem.

Today I had to dive with Norris (Divemaster) and Oliver (another guest). Oliver kept showing me shrimp.

I am falling really behind on my IDs. I think that’s OK. I can work on them in the new year (and on my long travel home).

This resort is fabulous and I would love to come here once a year, but sort of as a silent retreat. All of the guests speak German at dinner so there’s really not much of a social aspect.

Pedro keeps asking me if I’m not tired after doing four dives a day… but the funny thing is that he never asks Thomas that and he is also doing four dives a day. Hmmmm…

The nudi count continues to climb and I’m still seeing new ones and some I’ve never seen before!

85 - Caloria indica