Don't be a knob, turn the knob

I slept until my little watch alarm went off at 5am.

Twice today on dives, I had trouble with my air.  Both times the crew turned the tank knob partially, but not all the way on.  On one dive, I felt a weird draw but was able to signal to Newman (the dive guide) to open my tank value for me and I was fine.

On the night dive, I was sort of by myself (but still within the area of the group).  I seriously thought something was wrong with my regulator, so I surfaced fairly slowly from about 40 feet.  I took a draw off my integrated Air 2 but it had the same problem.  As the crew pulled my tank/BC/Reg up onto the skiff, I told them not to touch it because I wanted someone to look at it. But when I was back up on the skiff, I realized that if I just turned the valve open all the way, it was fine.  LOOOOOSER.  Since it was pretty early in the dive and we weren’t that deep, I went back down.

That was just lazy sloppy behavior on my part.  Ugh.  I need to check every time all the time to make sure my air is on all the way!

Christianne still is not diving, poor thing.  We did have a good conversation about Villa Markisa.  Eventually, she is looking at selling the resort and building a little retirement community nearby.  Super cool.  It kinda reminds me of the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel but with retirees having common interests of diving and nudibranchs.

I was SO DIZZY after the night dive and had some stomach troubles too.  I just had a diet coke and went to bed to try to sleep as much as possible overnight.

Here are the new nudibranchs I saw today:

31 - Goniobranchus geometricus

Yup.  This one (my favorite and the one on my blog home page) had its name changed from Chromodoris geometrica.  

32 - Phyllodesmium magnum 

This one was beautiful but there was a line of divers dying to get a picture of it behind me, so I didn't spend enough time to get a good photo.  This will have to do.

33 - Flabellina exoptata

This one is pretty common.

34 - Aegires villosus

Looks like candy!

35 - Flabellina rubrolineata

These were everywhere.

36 - Ceratophyllidia sp. 2

This one is VERY rare and I've never seen it before.  Bubble wrap nudi?

37 - Phyllodesmium colemani

The funny thing about this one is that I was obsessed with a little wiggling worm nearby before Newman showed me this...

Ha ha.  It's not a worm.  The nudi just lost one of its cerata. Oops.

38 - Halgerda batangas

39 - Thuridilla lineolata

40 - Tritonia sp. 6

This one was ridiculously tiny.

41 - Okenia liklik

I love these spiky cerata - and it looks like there is a second nudi on its back.  And how cool is its name?  Lik Lik! 

42 - Flabellina riwo

At some dive sites, there were dozens of these!

43 - Plakobranchus sp. 4

Horns like a bull?

44 - Chelidonura amoena

45 - Phyllodesmium koehleri

46 - Favorinus tsuruganus

So.  Everyone makes fun of my Chicago accent.  Especially when I say Fav-o-RYYYYN-us.  Russell and Graham especially - they can't get it out of their heads.  FAVORINUS.  FAVORINUS.  FAVORINUS.  That's to keep Russell saying it until the next trip.

47 - Thuridilla flavomaculata

48 - Aplysia parvula

This is a sea hare.  The cool thing about them is that you can see a little basic eye on them.

49 - Phyllidia ocellata

50 - Roboastra gracilis

51 - Thuridilla carlsoni

52 - Hypselodoris tryoni

This one had a name change too - it used to be Risbecia tryoni.

53 - Costasiella kuroshimae

This one has pink tips.

54 - Aplysia sp.

55 - Doto sp. 12

56 - Eubranchus sp. 25

57 - Eubranchus sp. 27

58 - Philinopsis speciosa

This one used to be named Philinopsis cyanea.  I found two different color combinations and each dove into the silt, disappearing completely!

59 - Melibe engeli

This one is super special.  It is pretty much see through.  It also has this awesome mouth that swoops open and swallows up whatever is in front of it.  You can see it here on the left, although I still haven't gotten it perfectly in focus.  It is so difficult to photograph.

60 - Cuthona sp. 13

61 - Cratena sp.2

I'm so pissed I didn't spend more time with this one.  I thought it was a boring common one, but it is kinda rare!  It has orange markings on its "face".

62 - Pleurobranchus albiguttatus

Purdy Thirty

9/2/15

I woke up at 4am… I’m so excited to dive!

One of my goals this trip is to spend more time outside on the boat decks instead of inside in the salon.

So far so good:  I witnessed an amazing sunrise from to top deck.

We are anchored in Wainilu which is where the Komodo dragons are on the beach.  During the dives I kept looking up expecting to see a dragon swimming toward me!

This area is much colder than the area we dove yesterday.  When I say colder, I mean 79 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 82.

After getting off the skiff from each dive, the crew lines up and says “Good Dive” and gives you a high five.  I change it up and give them a fist bump… Chicago style.

Martha has this AWESOME electric heated vest.  I am totally getting one.  It is battery powered with a remote and several different levels.  She let me feel her back at the end of the night dive and it was soooo warm.

Bernard presented at night about collecting and documenting species.  He said that when you turn over a rock, you should put it back in the orientation which you found it because there are organisms on the bottom of the rock that need to stay covered in order to survive.  He gave lots of info about different websites that can help identify nudibranchs.

I was really tired but I stayed up a bit to hear some talk about David Doubilet and how Graham was with him during the National Geographic shoot with the white boxes.  I told him that I stalked him at Our World Underwater and got him to sign a print.  I’ve got it framed and hanging on my wall.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/nudibranchs/doubilet-photography

Here are the new nudis I saw today:

12 - Thecacera sp. 8

Whenever I see a Thecacera, I think of the song "Que Sera Sera... Whatever Will Be Will Be".

13 - Thecacera pacifica

If you look at this one straight on, it looks like it has boobs!

14 - Thecacera sp. 5

This shows the nudi on its food source.

15 - Hypselodoris bullocki

16 - Glossidoris cincta

17 - Tritonia sp.

I am not sure which one this is.  It doesn’t match any in the book.  It may be a juvenile.

18 - Dermatobranchus sp.

I am not sure which one this is.  It doesn’t match any in the book.  I think Dermatobranchus are BORING but I did my best to try to match it to the 38 different ones in the book but none seem to fit.  Anyone have any suggestions?

19 - Pteraeolidia ianthina

These are HUGE here!  They are also known as the Blue Dragon nudis.

20 - Dermatobranchus semilunus

21 - Tambja morosa

22 - Marionia arborescens

At one point during the dive I thought, I should “turn things over” and the first thing I turned over was a Marionia arborescens.  Pretty cool.

23 - Gymnodoris aurita

Doesn’t it look like this one is smiling?

24 - Rostanga aureamala

25 - Dermatobranchus kalyptos

26 - Nembrotha chamberlaini

27 - Atagema intecta

28 - Marionia sp.

29 - Phyllodesmium lizardensis

30 - Melibe coralophilia

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.