Two Dozen Nudis, just what I ordered

Yay!!! We FINALLY get to dive today.  I’m so excited.  It’s pretty much been a whole week just getting here.  Ugh.

I woke up at 3am.  I couldn’t freakin’ sleep anymore.

I sat on the sundeck in the dark and watched a thunder and lightning storm roll in.  It was raining intermittently, but I used it to go in and out using the bathroom and getting more coffee.  I read the NudibranchBehavior book.  It was so fun and I believe that might just be my favorite book of all time.  J

It is really warm here.  I am wearing my old wetsuit and it is just fine (although I’m having trouble getting it over my calves!).  I haven’t got a chill at all yet.

After dive two, I already had 17 nudibranch species identified.

Cheryl pointed out the Chromodoris dianae and I told her the story about how Dave Behrens named it after his wife on their anniversary, but his wife said that she would much rather have had some diamonds.

Topside today, the islands were gorgeous… and we were the only boat at most of the sights.  We encountered mobula rays, bride whales and saw a double rainbow.  Um, it will be tough to beat that.

I put my little guy “Chad” in the rubber bands of my external hard drive.  It looks so funny like I have tied him up.

My camera is working as it should.  Hooray!  But I forget to turn off the face recognition feature.  That was changing my focus spot. 

I’d still like to figure out the best setting for the strobes.  I still don’t feel like I know how to get a ton of light on my subject.  I’ll try to read up on it.

We found a red frogfish today which is pretty rare for this region.  

I was also able to photograph a “Santa Claus” seahorse.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these.

We had dinner outside on the sundeck and the rain held off until just after we finished dessert.  I forced myself to sit with “the other group” of divers not from Rich’s group.  It was actually fun to hear how they met, what kind of diving they like to do, etc.

Today I got up to 24 species of nudibranchs:

1 - Chromodoris annae

2 - Phyllidipsis shireenae

3 - Goniobranchus coi

I also saw these little parasite eggs (maybe?) mixed in with the gill of this guy.  It was really kinda weird.

4 - Thuridilla gracilis

5 - Phyllidiopsis sphingis 

I think this one is new for me.  Notice the bluish sheen on it, especially down by the margin.

6 - Phyllidia alyta

7 - Flabellina rubrolineata (lavender)

8 - Phyllidiella pustulosa

9 - Chromodoris lochi

10 - Phyllidia ocellata

11 - Goniobranchus geometricus

12 - Chromodoris dianae

13 - Nembrotha cristata

14 - Phyllidia coelestis

15 - Flabellina exoptata

16 - Flabellina rubrolineata (orange and purple with nipple like cerata)

17 - Pteraeolidia semperi

18 - Nembrotha sp. 1

19 - Phyllidia sp. 1

20 - Caloria indica

21 - Chelidonura amoena

22 - Aegires sp. 8 

23 - Goniobranchus fidelis

24 - Nembrotha kubaryana

Little Guys in Speedos

The boat is amazing.  It’s like a nicer Cheng Ho.  There are 16 divers and 22 crew.

Deb and I are roommates again and she gave me the big bed.  So awesome.

There aren’t many photographers.  I got a whole tabletop to myself and a whole bunch of outlets.  I probably won’t really even need my power strip, except for maybe downstairs in my room for my laptop.

We aren’t diving today (boo hoo), but I have set up everything and it all seems to be working so far…

The boat briefing was at 11am and Lisa spoke for an hour.  There was at least 20 minutes on food and drinks.  Whoa. 

We’ve already had two meals on the boat and it’s only 1:13.

We have another dive briefing at 4:30.  I’m trying not to sleep during the day today.

There is a lot of buzz about Nudibranchs here!  I’m super excited.

There is also lots of shark talk.  Epaulette (walking) Shark and Wobbegong.  Whatevs.

My dive boat is with Joni.  It is Cheryl, Yuvonne, Deb and Me.  I cracked out the little guys in speedos for our boat and I brought a little Chicken Stu to put on the D ring.

It turns out the boat also has their own rubber chicken that one of the dive groups brought to them in 2014.  Its head is red unlike Chicken Stu’s.

Dinner was sashimi then tomato soup then lasagna or fish and then flan.  Yuck (on the flan).  Flan is like snot on a plate.  Ewwww.

But the afternoon snack was fried bananas so I got that instead of flan!

Oh, and the diet cokes are free!  I’m just worried the boat is going to run out of them.  I always list my dietary needs when registering for a liveaboard: diet coke and chocolate.  When Lisa gave us a tour of the room, she actually showed us that there was a refrigerator in our room and that there were a few bars of chocolate in there for me.  Ha!!

The Arenui has a great use of technology!  They have a couple of iPads hooked up and are using the navigation app (the same one I used when I captained the boat a couple of summers ago).  They are also using the two flatscreen TVs to project our dive sites and give the briefing.  Cool.

Raja Ampat means “four kingdoms”.  There are four islands near each other that represent these four kingdoms.  We are on our way to Masol which is in the South and is one of the best places to dive.  Supposedly the other liveaboards went North first so we should have this place all to ourselves.

Pop Goes the Weasel

After flights from Chicago O'Hare to Tokyo Narita to Jakarta, I was scheduled to stay nearby at the Pop Hotel.

The flight landed a little late, but I was able to get my bags and up to the shuttle pickup in time to get the free shuttle (which I confirmed the day before I left) to Pop Hotel but none showed up.  This meant I needed to get a taxi on my own.  But I didn’t change any money and I really didn’t want to. (I know, that's a weird thing I do when I travel internationally... I take it as a challenge to survive without actually getting any local currency.  Is that an "Ugly American" habit?)  I insisted that I be able to pay by credit card and the taxi driver and the guy who hailed it for me said I could.  Then he proceeded to drive me to a convenience store and told me to go use the ATM to get out Rupiah.  Forget it.

I was so tired and so mad.  I was able to get him to take me to Pop Hotel and then talked to the front desk.  But I forgot something.  I forgot that Indonesians just say "Yes".  Even if they can’t do the thing I’m asking for, they just say "Yes".  I finally got the cab driver to just take $20 US and leave.  Because they never picked me up at the airport, the hotel comp’ed me my late checkout the next day.

I slept so hard all day.

I met the rest of the group at the Jakarta airport.  Our first flight to Makassar was at 9pm.  Then the next flight to Sorong was at 3am and we landed at 6am-ish.

Arenui Aristocrats

Wow.  A blank slate.  I’ve been looking forward to this trip for two and a half years.

I’m headed here:

http://thearenui.com

I’ve wanted to take a trip on The Arenui for years.  However, it is so “hoity toity” I was worried that all of the guests would be older more mature people who wouldn’t understand a goofball like me who wanted to do every single dive!

This boat has on board masseurs and a wine list. 

I was at Our World Underwater in 2014 and Michelle Sattler brought Cheryl Mell who brought Rich Woulfe to dinner at Gibson’s before the film festival.  When Rich mentioned that he had the Arenui booked for Thanksgiving 2016, I wanted to know who to send my check to.  This seemed like a really good group.  I was in!

This is new for me.  I usually don’t travel with anyone else from the Chicagoland area.  I am used to going on my own and meeting people there who I may or may not know already.  We’ve actually gotten together several times over the couple of years talking this trip – also something I’m not used to!

The fun part is that Cheryl Mell, Yuvonne Moore and Jeannie Folk (my Chicago travel buddies) are all Beefeaters and also Dinner with Divers peeps.  Deb Crane will be joining us as well from Phoenix (she was my roommate on the Cocos Aggressor and Rosio del Mar in Socorro).  Although Rich Woulfe doesn’t qualify for Beefeaters, he’s got some pretty strong ties to the Chicagoland area and he organized this whole thing.

http://www.richtravels.com

The life/work balance has been good recently.  I am happy where I am and things aren’t too stressful.  I’ve been swimming every morning at The Union League Club and my social calendar is pretty full.  I can’t complain.

I downloaded a bunch of books and I’m looking forward to reading and watching movies on the flights.  However, if experience is any indicator… I’ll fall asleep as soon as I’m tucked into my seat.  And that’s just fine with me.

I’m a little worried about my underwater photography on this trip.  I had some trouble with my previous set up camera/housing so I’ve bought a new set (I know – “baller move”) but I haven’t proven things out.  I’m also worried that the diving will be more “pass flying” than nudibranch shooting.  It would be terrible if I brought my set up all this way and it sat on the boat (like it did for Socorro).