I slept in a little more today. I am working on my groove.
I am watching episodes of The Big C on Netflix and Alan Alda’s character just talked about an Italian phrase: il dolce far niente, which literally translates to "the sweetness of doing nothing". That sounds just like liming.
There are several people here coughing. I cannot imagine this on a dive trip. I hope they get better… and that I don’t catch it. I drink out of my own cup, so hopefully I won’t.
It is interesting diving at a resort vs. a liveaboard. A liveaboard is more like summer camp. You all get on the boat at the same time and have to live with each other for a week in pretty close quarters. Where as at the resort, people come and go all the time. Even though I might like some people, it takes a little effort to chat with them and then they are gone.
We did a Mucky Morning where we stayed in the area and did Secret Bay and then Jack’s Jewels. On the surface interval we noticed some local kids on the beach. They had a hold of a bird and it seems they had clipped the wings so it couldn’t fly away. They were taking it for a swim in the ocean and then took it to a boat where they had a big knife. WTF? It is like Lord of the Flies around here.
Then right before I jumped for my afternoon dive, I looked over and saw a different set of kids bouncing hard on a branch of a tree out over the ocean. And all these other kids were also on the branch. What!?!?!? I mentioned this to Uri and he told me a story about one of the kids catching a small moray and showing it off to all the other kids. Then he smacked the head of it against a rock to kill it. I mean, I assume they learned that from their parents. Holy cow.
At lunch I dropped off the Japanese snacks with the freeze dried fish in them to see if anyone would eat them. So far, no takers.
I was waffling on the afternoon house reef dive but I MADE myself go. I am so glad I did. I didn’t go far and found so much that the hour went by really quickly.
The night dive was off the charts insane. I was so into things that I went into a little bit of deco because I wasn’t paying attention. There was a point where we were looking at a Miamira and I really wanted to snoot it but I knew it would take a lot of effort to get it switched up. But Mona even asked if I wanted to snoot it. So then I went for it and I really struggled with the switch up. I have to unscrew the arm, take off the strobe, remove the diffuser, turn on the spotter light, turn off the other strobe and the focus light. I was so awkward and had to swim away to do it… by the time I was ready, Mona had moved on and I couldn’t find the slug anymore. I mean, WTF Pam? Even through it all, there were so many interesting species.
At dinner we talked about holiday traditions in different countries. I also got some book recommendations.
My counts today are respectable, but nowhere near my 2023 on Day 4 which was 107.
Circus of Slugs
68 - Trapania sp. 1
69 - Favorinus sp. 14
70 - Pleurobranchus peronii
Something took a chunk out of this guy. Those are its guts hanging out.
71 - Cadlinella ornatissima
73 - Philinopsis gardineri
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