That's a Wrap

Well, today I start my long journey home.  Alor to Kupang.  Kupang to Jakarta.  Jakarta to Tokyo.  Tokyo to Chicago.

This has been a pretty epic trip.  I think we ended up with such a good nudi count because Pirjo was here too.

Here are the stats:

233 Unique Species of Nudibranchs.  Although I went fast and made some mistakes, so once I go through everything again, this number may change.

We kept finding new nudis every day.  I think there were only a few dives where I didn’t find a new species.

I'm trying a new thing where I am keeping track of a Life List of Nudis so I can tell which ones are new for me in life.  For this trip to Alor, here are the 19 new ones:

• Aegires exeches
• Aldisa williamsi
• Chromodoris sp. 12
• Chromodoris sp. 14
• Dendrodoris carbunculosa
• Dermatobranchus sp. 18
• Elysia sp. 15
• Eubranchus sp. 17
• Goniobranchus sinensis
• Goniodoris sp. 6
• Goniodoris sp. 7
• Haminoea ovalis
• Hypselodoris paradisa
• Hypselodoris yarae
• Mexichromis similaris
• Platydoris inframaculata
• Tenellia sp. 76
• Thorunna australis
• Verconia varians

I did 59 Dives bringing me to a lifetime total of 2249.

Until next time!

Wooden Goggles

My theory is that studying Nudibranchs and keeping up with the species changes will be my way of keeping my brain active and Alzheimers at bay.

It is weird not putting a bathing suit on this morning.  I just put on regular summer clothes for the tour of the town.  Funny thing is that we can’t show our knees.  That’s pretty random.

The tour of the traditional village was interesting.  They did several ceremonies for us.  And for the last dance they asked us to join in.  I tried to keep in step, but it was a little disconcerting.  At the end they all came to touch our hands and I kinda got creeped out by it.  Then we shopped in their little market.  I finally bought the wooden goggles that the local fisherman use.  

But then I was not really into shopping anymore.  I didn’t want any of the saris.  They were all really heavy and in my opinion, pretty ugly.

We then went to the museum where we saw many of the Mokos which are special drums.  And the man has to pay the woman’s family a certain number of Mokos in order to marry her.  So weird.

Finally, we went to the market where they sold all the vegetables and some other things and it was SO HOT.  I just wanted to get out of there.  

When we got back home, all I wanted to do was shower before lunch.

Now I need to pack.

Rhome stated that one of the rooms for next year freed up!  So I might book again.  I am debating since they only have a ten night block available and I usually like to come for a longer time.

Francis put together a little slide show that we watched after dinner.  He put in his, Pirjo and mine.  Very nice.

Baby Whale Shark

This is the very last day of diving.

In between Matap and Rhuma Biru, we found a WHALE SHARK.  It was a baby and I was able to jump in and get some Go Pro of it.

After the second dive, we found a couple of Mola Molas.  For the first one, the water was SO COLD that my Go Pro lens fogged up.  So when we encountered the second one, I just put in the Go Pro, I didn’t jump.  It turned out the water wasn’t so cold then.  We watched all the fisherman pull in their catches.  

Francis had to treat one of the boat crew today.  He caught a fish and there is a spine in his finger and he is losing feeling in it.  Ugh.

The current at the house reef was pretty rough today so I asked if I could join the afternoon boat and I did.  It was great.  I am so glad I asked.

Our last dive, the night dive was at an “exploration” dive site.  They had been there a couple of times last year and found nudis… and there was no current there, so we dove it.  I was pleasantly surprised.

At dinner, we ate this HUGE Snapper that we had seen the fisherman catch earlier in the day.  How’s that for fresh food?

The final count down…

229. Phyllidiella lizae

230. Nembrotha sp.

231. Haminoea ovalis

232. Elysia sp. 21

233. Phyllodesmium sp. 8

Hola Mola Mola

Only two more days of diving.

It was one of the boat guy’s birthday.  Heinke I think.  He turned 28.  Their tradition here is that they crack eggs on their head and push them in the water to clean up.  So they don’t make them “a cake”, just the eggs.

The first two dives had some pretty good current but I still found some cool things.  A Gastopteron and a Jorunna rubescens with its penis out!  I was obsessed by it and took pictues and video of it growing and shrinking.  It also had the same exact pattern on it as the nudi.  Francis thinks that this should be a tattoo!

Pirjo keeps saying that she is going to order us mask straps so then we said it should have a picture of the Jorunna rubescens penis on them.

The sea was doing crazy things.  It was like rolling waves and then choppy waves.

I jumped in with a Mola Mola on the way back from the morning dives.

On the night dive, we were bouncing along trying to find things.  And a came across a bra.  Just sitting there.  With crinoids under the armpits.  I picked it up and gave it to Pirjo and asked her why she left her bra down here.  We were both laughing though our regulator.

We were a little silly at dinner.  These guys are obsessed with John Travolta so I showed them the new commercial where he is dressed up as Santa Claus.

I think I’m getting a little giddy.  I was telling stupid jokes at dinner and laughing at random memories with Pirjo.

Sluggers…

221. Doto ussi

222. Chromodoris cf. strigata

223. Sagaminopteron nigropunctatum

224. Colpodaspis thompsoni

225. Madrella sanguinea

226. Mexichromis multituberculata

227. Platydoris pulchra

228. Phyllodesmium koehleri

Coldest Dive Ever

Every morning Max goes out paddleboarding.  The other day he also sent the drone up because there was a rainbow.  Often he also encounters dolphins.  So he starts his day with dolphins and rainbows.  Not bad.  I was teasing him that he leads a 14 year old girl’s dream life and that he needed to capture the Swifty crowd with his influencing.

I took lots of Go Pro video during the surface interval since Max, Rhome and Viennae were also on the boat.  They were pretty funny

OMG the second dive site was so cold!  It got down to 67 degrees.  That is the coldest recreational dive I have ever done.  The currents are crazy today.  On the way back, we saw three blue marlin hanging around and I tripped over one of the boxes to put my Go Pro under.  We will see if it caught anything.

The house reef was so boring, but at least it wasn’t cold.  We stayed down 88 minutes on the night dive but only like the last ten were any good.

I told Max that his moustache reminds me of the Lorax.  He’s going to try to work that into his Influencer Story to the Swifties… his 14 year old girl lifestyle.

There was a new tiny gecko in the camera room.  I think we should call him Strobe 2.0.

Normally Timo comes around and tells each dive group where they are going the next day.  He has instead taken to asking “Team Nudi” where we will be going diving the next day.

We keep climbing the curve:

213. Phyllidia willani

214. Phyllidia sp. 1

215. Phyllidia picta

216. Halgerda batangas

217. Costasiella sp. 1

<coming soon>

218. Ceratosoma trilobatum

219. Kabeiro phasmida

220. Phyllodesmium lizardensis

Tank Banger

I am so glad that I still feel good and our nudi count is strong.  I will continue to dive four dives a day!  I won’t dive on my last day though, we are going to a tour of the town… which I don’t believe I have ever done before!

The bird songs here are very pretty.  I wish I could also be a birder.  I just don’t think my distance eyesight is good enough.  

The first two dives were a little slow but that is OK because my camera was still having issues.

At the end of the first dive we surfaced and could not find the boat anywhere.  We are just along the shore and there is a little town, so we were not worried but it was weird.  It turns out that the boat crew left the ladder and when they realized it, they motored back to the resort to get it and came back for us.  Thank God!  I would not want to try to get in that boat without a ladder.

Rhome’s brother Viennae joined us for lunch.  I remember him from last year and when everyone watched the world cup at the wee hours of the morning.

I swapped camera 2 for camera 1 in hopes that I won’t have a flash issue where the strobes don’t fire.

I tested this out during the afternoon dive.  Camera 1 is working perfectly.  Thank God I bring an extra one!

During the Night Dive, I actually found a nudi that I didn’t want Pirjo to miss out on.  She and Nikko were pretty far away, so I banged my tank and waved my light.  Normally, I am NOT a tank banger, but this Dendrodoris denisoni deserved it!

At dinner I researched a question I was trying to figure out.  What is deadlier?  A Sea Krait or a  Blue Ring Octopus?  Turns out it is the Sea Krait.  

This list is getting really long - close to last year!

202. Goniobranchus sinensis

203. Mexichromis cf. similaris

204. Aegires sp. 2

205. Philinopsis speciosa

206. Thorunna daniellae

207. Unknown

208. Samla bilas

209. Tenellia sp. 76

210. Trinchesia sp.

Marli Wakeling said: I think it is a Trinchesia sp., but I cannot find a match, sorry.

211. Dendrodoris denisoni

212. Tenellia sp. 28

Flash Fail

Today we have to dive without Nikko.  It is his day off.  We dove with Sam instead.  He is a good guy and decent spotter, but nothing like Nikko.

We saw two turtles on the first dive.  On the second dive I saw an octopus and we saw a strange cream colored sea snake at the end.

Three guests left and two new ones arrived.  As Lisa was leaving she said that she would be interested in Slugfest and so is Rhome.  I’ll keep them in mind whenever the next one is.  I think 2025?

Everyone is singing Christmas Carols, especially Max.  He sees himself as Louie Armstrong.

I asked about availability for next year and they are fully booked for December, so I think I will need to pick a new place for 2024 Holidays.

I had a great afternoon dive and found some new stuff on the house reef, but my camera started doing this funny thing where it wasn’t firing the strobe every time.  It still takes a picture but it is almost black and this little red icon shows in the top left hand side of the monitor.  I did a little research to figure out what is going on, but I don’t have any answers.  Maybe the flash on the camera is getting old and it cannot recycle fast enough?  If it keeps happening, I will switch to the other body I have.

I also have been coming to the house reef so often that the cleaner wrasse are trying to clean me.  One was hanging around me through the first half of the dive.  I’m not sure if it is because the hovering position I am in or if it is because I am REALLY dirty and need to be cleaned.

Sam redeemed himself on the night dive.  We saw a LOT of stuff.  My favorite was a Gymnodoris that had a big smile on its face.  I was obsessed and stayed a little bit too long and hit some deco, so I had to go shallower than the group for a while.  Pirjo thought I just got frustrated and had to get away from everyone for a bit.  Ha.  That might have been true in some instances, but it was not the case this time.

Quietly Queuing

191. Dermatobranchus fortunatus

192. Tambja sp. 3

193. Marionia sp. 1

194. Hypselodoris decorata

195. Nembrotha sp. 1

196. Dermatobranchus cf. albus

197. Melibe engeli

198. Elysia pusilla

199. Gymnodoris ceylonica

200. Dendrodoris guttata

201. Phyllodesmium cf. magnum

Diving in the Rain

All the dogs howl here at the same time.  I swear it is like every dog on the whole island is yelling.  Someone said it is because they are getting fed.

It was rainy almost all day.

We had a girl dive in the afternoon with Rhome, Pirjo and me.  We went looking for the Doris pectin but we did not find it.  The dive overall was pretty slow.

The rain was pounding down when we got ready for the night dive.

I finished my book Housemoms: A Novel by Jen Lancaster.  She is one of my favorite authors but I really like her memoirs better than her fiction.

Still Listing...

181. Thecacera sp. 5

182. Pleurobranchus varians

183. Phyllodesmium undulatum

184. Eubranchus sp. 4

185. Costasiella usagi

186. Hermaea sp. 2

187. Siphenoropton flavum

188. Elysia sp. 30

189. Marionia sp. 15

190. Marionia sp. 10