Nudi Gal: Nuturing Nudi-philes

It’s really a miracle that any of us get to go underwater at all. I think about all of the problems we could possibly have from a broken wetsuit zipper to a flooded camera, to a dive computer without battery to congestion and ears not clearing. I am so grateful that I’ve been able to make all my dives so far. I’m about halfway through my month long trip now.

Meh. The first two dives were so so. I almost didn’t even download my pictures in between. I did shoot these little itty bitty things floating in the water. I thought they were just juvenile fish but it turns out they were orangy-yellow shrimp with buggy eyes… some call them bumble bees and I got a decent photo of it. Super cool.

Alice lost her camera. She said that she gave it to Andrew during a dive and he lost it, but regardless it is nowhere to be found.

I asked Garry if he knows Graham. He said he does… and said “that guy knows his critters”. They worked together on a boat many many years ago. He also knows Christianne (she was a guest on this boat a while back) and he hosted Howard and Michelle Hall for them to film mantas.

Everyone keeps saying they want to follow me because I’m finding the best nudis and critters. I think I’ve turned on two of the young women on the boat to branching. They really want to see the Pikachu (Thecacera sp. 8). I’m sure we will see it.

There are pictures up in the salon of many of the other Aggressors. Palau is up, but not Kona.

On the night dive, Diego pointed out to me the eyes of a bobtail squid. Then he didn’t make it jump like all the other divemasters do. I realized he probably didn’t know what it was. Huh. So I took off my little stick and stuck it down under the squid into the sand which made it jump up. It stayed there long enough for me to take a good picture and then it inked us.

I also showed Diego exactly where the Phyllodesmium briarium live and we found a few patches with dozens of them. It’s fun to dive with him since it is his first week here. I

Garry sat next to me at dinner and it was a pretty entertaining hour. He’s not really buying into my whole nudi fanaticism. He is just a freelance guy, he doesn’t really work for Aggressor. All the local guys really run this boat. He said that he is friends with Peter Hughes. I wonder what that guy is like.

My roommate Eve has had a migrane and hasn’t been diving in at least 24 hours. She still seems chipper and I believe she is still smoking and drinking with the others at night (she comes to the room really late). Some of the other divers skip many dives as well. I just don’t get that. As long as I’m healthy, I’m going on every dive possible. The more I’m down there, the more I get a chance to see things.

Here are the nudis I saw today:

23 - Goniobranchus fidelis