I like 'em hairy

The power went out overnight.  For some reason it woke me up.

So Graham has earned the chicken.  He forgot to grab his wetsuit.  Ha! But he was a trooper.  He still dove in just his little boyshorts.  He cracks me up.  I would have been FREEZING!  I’m not sure I could have done it.

The first dive was superb for nudis!!!  I got 13 new ones.  The second dive I didn’t get any but I did see a Gymnodoris sp. 4 riding on top of a Discodoris cebuensis.  Is it trying to eat it?!?!?  Yup, Dave Beherns confirmed that this is what is going on.  It cannot see its prey, only smell it.  So they just start eating...

And I also saw a juvenile Elysia marginata with a smiley face.  How cute is that?

On the afternoon dive, I finally got a good shot of the hairy shrimp.  This one was big, sitting still and was up on a perch so I was able to finally capture it.  Awesome!

I also saw a couple of sets of Godiva rachelae fighting!  I didn’t get any video but next time I see it I will try.

It rained REALLY hard in the afternoon.  So hard that Amil recommended that I not dive the house reef.  There is a river that empties near the resort and makes things really turbid so you can’t see anything.  I was a little tired and the rain was coming down, so I skipped it an took a nap.  I didn’t wake up until right before dinner.

At dinner there were two new people.  They are the owners of the resort and they are off building a new one even MORE remote.  They are basically living like “The Blue Lagoon” right now.  I told them I had so many questions… like power source and running water and food and how many fights a day they have.  It’s fascinating.

It sounds like David may have his camera working again.  Good for him!

Here are the nudis I saw:

84 - Glossodoris hikuerensis

85 - Phyllodesmium briareum

86 - Tritoniopsis elegans

87 - Mexichromis trilineata

88 - Chromodoris sp. 5

89 - Petalifera ramosa

90 - Phyllodesmium koehleri

91 - Chromodoris strigata

92 - Phyllidiopsis annae

93 - Dermatobranchus sp. 11

94 - Ceratosoma trilobatum

95 - Haminoea cf. cymbalum

96 - Phyllodesmium crypticum

97 - Stylocheilus striatus

98 - Okenia purpurata

99 - Phyllodesmium lizardensis

100 - Tenellia lugubris

La la la la la...Sing, Sing a Song...

I found it!  I found the Life List spreadsheet.I was thinking about the vlookup in the other spreadsheets and I was sure that it had to have the path.  Right before I went to bed, I noticed that that directory was there (why the hell it got saved there, I have no idea), but I couldn’t get to it (for permission reasons it wouldn’t show up).  I had wifi so I connected with an Apple support person and did an online chat to get this figured out.  She showed me a way to go directly there.  And it worked!  And the file was there.  Woot! The first thing I did this morning was save a backup of it.  And emailed it to myself.  There were so many hours spent on putting that thing together, I never want to lose it again!!!

Today is cinnamon roll day. We were told to save room.  Yum!

David calls the baby shampoo we use on the boat for defogging our masks “Baby Poo”.  Sorta gross right?

In between the morning dives, I swam over to a docked boat the local kids were playing on. I got them to sing along with me: “La la la la la, Sing… Sing a Song…” and took a video.

I really enjoyed shooting a yellow Rhinopias.  It was awesome.  And I think when I approached it, my settings were just right.  I took a picture of Pat and then of Graham with it using my Go Pro.

Last week Judith lost her spotter light.  But today on the first dive, Kevin found it.  On the wall.  Crazy. He gave her a hard time at lunch before he handed it over to her.  

David’s camera is coming back to life slowly… but he is now sick with stomach issues.  It is such a balancing act to try to stay healthy in Indonesia when you are diving several dives a day.  

On the night dive we went back to the same place I was before, but it was just as exciting!

Here are the nudis for today:

70 - Phyllidiella annulata

71 - Goniobranchus aureopurpureus

72 - Hypselodoris tryoni

73 - Jorunna rubescens

74 - Trapania naeva

75 - Plakobranchus ocellatus

76 - Samla riwo

77 - Favorinus sp. 1

78 - Discodoris boholiensis

79 - Phyllodesmium undulatum

80 - Goniobranchus preciosus

81 - Lomanotus vermiformis

82 - Gymnodoris sp. 4

83 - Aplysia sp. 

Chicken Stu Clucks On

Super excited for another day.

A big perk of this resort is that they do your laundry for free!  That is awesome for someone who is going to be gone for a month.  Although I just realized that I turned in my travel clothes like the first day (Sunday) and I still haven’t gotten them back.  So if there is a long turnaround time, I need to factor that in.

Crap.  I went to go put a note in my Nudibranch Life List spreadsheet and I can’t find it.  Where would I have saved that!?!?!?  Fuck. Really.  I have no idea where that thing went.  I’m so bummed.  I spent at least a whole weekend working on that.  Ugh.  Seriously, I cannot find it anywhere.  Why didn’t I at least email that thing to myself or back it up.  Dammit!  I wonder if I can go back in time on my machine and see if I can find it.  Oh, I guess it needs to be set up before I can use it. Ugh!

Pat forgot her mask on the first dive, so she earned one of the little Chicken Stu keychains I brought. 

Graham and I did some reminiscing on the boat about Jamie and Juha (swim like a Fin) and Jesse. They were all guests on the PNG Peter Hughes boat when he and I met.

Pat rented the Kona Aggressor for her husband’s retirement and kept it a secret from him.  She flew family and friends in for the week long event and decorated the boat.  He knew he was flying first to Kona but didn’t know where he was going after that.  Then when they boarded the boat everyone was there and yelled “Surprise”!!!  

There are two Judiths here at the resort.  They are snorkelers, not divers.

One of the Judiths blows glass.  Like is an accomplished artist in the craft.  And did it in Italy with some high end professionals.  She told some stories and is really into it.  I asked what she did with her pieces.  She said that some of them she sells but many of them she buries in the forest near her house.  She figures someone will find them someday.  Huh.  She also had a real job both teaching high school and college student.  She’s a trip.

The other Judith has blue hair.  Literally. She uses a toothbrush to put one streak of bright blue in the front of her short gray hair.  Crazy.

After seeing the rubber chicken ceremony, Judith and Judith told me that they were once a guest on the Palau Aggressor and they started talking about how that boat had a similar tradition. I let them walk me through the whole story about how it hangs above a diver on the skiff and how one of the Judiths was tricked into having it hooked on her tank during the dive.  After they were all done, I told them that I was the one who brought the tradition to the boat.  They thought that was AMAZING.  And that it was such a small world.  I wasn’t on the boat the week they were there though.  Bhoyet was the Photo Pro that week.

David flooded his camera on the second dive.  It seems like his camera is out of commission now.  I told him to try the rice trick where you put rice in a Ziploc to pull out the moisture.  I told him I couldn’t promise anything, but I’ve seen it work!  

Here are the nudis I saw today:

49 - Dorisprismatica balut

50 - Doriprismatica atromarginata

51 - Sagaminopteron psychedelicum

52 - Hypselodoris purpureomaculosa

53 - Ceratosoma gracillimum

54 - Stiliger aureomarginatus

55 - Halgerda batangas

56 - Hypselodoris maculosa

57 - Chromodoris striatella

58 - Phyllidia coelestis

59 - Goniobranchus reticulatus

60 - Chromodoris sp. 3

61 - Phyllidia sp. 9

62 - Phyllodesmium colemani

63 - Marionia arborescens

64 - Godiva rachelae

65 - Dermatobranchus sp. 3

66 - Nembrotha cristata

67 - Dermatobranchus sp. 8

68 - Trapania aurata

69 - Chelidonura varians