Pump It Up

I slept pretty well last night and got my slugs done in plenty of time.  I also didn’t have any unidentified ones to post to Facebook.

This morning’s dives are totally the reason I come to Romblon.  We barely went anywhere and just took photos of the most amazing slugs and critters.

I tried a new focus technique by using the back button.  I am still trying it but the good news is that however I have it set right now will let me focus with the back button and the regular half press.  That’s good.

I also asked Pirjo what she was taking a picture of because she couldn’t find it.  I assumed she could hit the play button on the bottom right of the camera, but I FORGOT that she looks at everything thru the viewfinder so that technique doesn’t work.

At lunch we took a picture with Vie.  Here is our Rock Star!

I shared my blog with him and he helped make a bunch of corrections.  He is really good at keeping up with the name changes.

I am going to do Blackwater tomorrow night here at Romblon.  Woot!  I messaged Mike to get the default settings.

For the afternoon, we are going to do two dives on the same trip.  We pushed back departure time to 3:30pm.  The night dive will be more of a dusk dive but that is ok.  We brought some snacks to eat on the surface interval.

I forgot to pump the vacuum in my housing today.  Crap.  At least I noticed it right away and was able to run back upstairs and do it.  Thank God.  A flood would be disasterous.  I feel like I need a sign: PUMP!!!

Tonight the dessert for dinner was ice cream, so we got coffee ice cream again.  Yum!

Nudi Count:

103 - Tenellia sibogae

104 - Eubranchus sp. 27

105 - Pleurobranchus albiguttatus

106 - Siphopteron tigranum

107 - Plocamopherus pecoso

108 - Siphopteron sp. 5

109 - Noumeaella sp.

110 - Lobiger sp. 1

111 - Cyerce sp. 4

112 - Cyerce cf. bourbonica

113 - Cyerce elegans

114 - Gymnodoris sp. 30

115 - Chelidonura pallida

116 - Tenellia sp. (I thought maybe Favorinus japonicus, but Vie said no)

117 - Ercolania endophytophaga

118 - Tritonia sp.

119 - Aegires serenae

120 - Aegires exeches

121 - Platydoris cruenta

122 - Phyllodesmium lizardensis

123 - Phyllidiella annulata

Licked by the liklik

I woke up early again but used my time wisely.  I worked on my slugs and remolded my custom fit mouthpiece to see if it will work for me.

New people are arriving.  And Kati and her kids left last night for Germany.  They are staying for quite a long time.  I told David, the chef that he needs to watch The Bear.  He hadn’t really heard about.  OMG.  I am so excited for him to see it.

On the first dive we saw the Okenia liklik.  It was the size of a grain of rice.  I came up and Francis and Pirjo were fighting. Oh No!  It turns out that Francis stayed on that little piece of coral for a half hour and could not find it.  I guess he got licked by the liklik.

I have to decide which way to fix my diopter… to flip to the left or the right.  During the surface interval, I reversed it and I think I like this way better… swinging open to the left.

We learned all about our dive guide Bobby today.  He is married and has 2 girls and a boy.  12, 8 and 4 years old.  His sister works at 3P and is also a dive guide, RuthB.  She is married to the chef, David.  And another mistake I made… I thought David was one of the brothers, but he is not.

There is Peter, Phillippe and Patrick.  Kati is married to Phillippe.  I can’t keep everyone straight.

Bobby said that his sister was a much better guide than he is.  I am not sure how that could possibly be.  On the second dive, RuthB’s group was on the same site and she brought me the tiniest little Moridilla brockii nudi.  OMG.  It was miniscule, I’d compare it to an eyelash.  I tried to shoot it with the diopter but I'm not sure I was successful.

We did a muck dive in the afternoon.  It was slow at first, but then picked up.

Then tonight was not my favorite night dive.  I felt off.  Like I wasn't finding anything… and that Pirjo was photographing things, I was waiting and then I would swim away and come back to look for the subject and never find them.  I also felt like Bobby was bringing me shrimps and crabs and she was seeing all the nudis.  And I couldn't get in the groove with the diopter.  I also realized that I am forgetting how to look for slugs on my own.  Bobby is so good, that I am being lazy just waiting for him.  OK, enough feeling sorry for myself.

On a positive note, I wore my hood and didn’t take any extra weight down.  Also, my “remelted” regulator mouthpiece continues to work fine.  Hooray!

At dinner they served delicious eggplant and bacon (along with lots of other stuff) but I just ate eggplant.  So good.  The dessert was flan.  My least favorite.  I swear it is like boogers on a plate, but instead this time it was in a bowl.  So gross.  Francis loved it though, he ate mine too!  I ordered the coffee ice cream instead.

Slug Kick Line

81 - Nembrotha sp. 1

82 - Naisdoris vitiligata (originally I thought Okenia liklik but Vie corrected me)

83 - Philine orca

84 - Mexichromis aurora (originally I thought Thorunna sp. 5 but Vie corrected me)

85 - Goniobranchus sp. (originally I thought Goniobranchus aureopurpureus but Vie corrected me)

86 - Pteraeolidia semperi

87 - Tenellia melanobrachia

88 - Moridilla brockii

89 - Goniobranchus hintuanensis

90 - Phyllodesmium rudmani

91 - Pruvotfolia rhodopos

92 - Phyllidia coelestis

93 - Tritonia sp. 10

94 - Tenellia nakapila (originally I thought Tenellia sp. 20 but Vie corrected me)

95 - Elysia sp. 27

96 - Favorinus sp. (originally I thought Pruvotfolia sp. 4 but Vie corrected me)

97 - Costasiella usagi

98 - Okenia sp. 4

99 - Samla macassarana

100 - Cratena simba (Originally I thought Tenellia sp. 56 but Vie corrected me)

101 - Hypselodoris skyleri

102 - Placida sp. 8

Mistaken Identity

I slept in a bit more this morning.  Hooray!  I needed sleep.  I have a little rash on my neck.

I posted three unknown nudis from yesterday to Nudibase and Vie answered them all already.  I said I could have just asked him at breakfast.  And he came over to say hello… It was a different guy.  Whoops!  I had a serious identification error.  We told him that at some point we wanted to take a picture with him.  He is here until Friday.  I should post the picture with a caption of “a very rare sighting”.

I sometimes have deep thought underwater and one that I had today was… it’s all practice.  We keep practicing everything.  But when is it no longer practice?  When is it real?

On the second dive I think I had one of my strobes turned off for most of the dive.  Grrrr.  Either I forgot to turn it on in the beginning or instead of turning the strobe strength I accidentally turned it off.

I got out the diopter today and gave it a try.  It wasn’t as heavy as I remember, but it is still pretty hard to focus.  I am getting better, but it is rough.  During the afternoon dive, Bobby kept setting us up on great species, handing us a slug on a rock but he would put us right on top of each other.  Man, I need my space.  There is a whole ocean, why so close?

There are lots of good cowries, shrimp and crab here.  Maybe I’ll make a page with just my shots of those.  Especially cool with the diopter.

I chewed through my regulator mouthpiece.  It was so terrible.  I cannot believe they sell these with the regulator.  I have my old one that is custom molded to my teeth but it won’t fit on.  Gah.

3P sold me a mouthpiece that will fit it but I am also going to try to melt my old one to see if it can fit.

Then there was no water after the night dive.  I couldn’t shower.  I waited 5-10 minutes and it seemed to come back on with some pressure so I was finally able to.  I came to dinner so late.  I was exhausted and I didn’t even stick around for dessert.

Slug Dance Line

59 - Phyllodesmium jakobsenae

60 - Glossodoris sp. 1

61 - Aegires villosus

62 - Marionia sp. 22

63 - Elysia marginata

64 - Unidentia sandramillenae

65 - Polycera sp. (originally I though Placamopherus tilesii but Vie corrected me)

This one had parasites on it.  And it was hanging out with its buddy, a shrimp.

66 - Miamira miamirana - sub-adult (originally I thought Miamira sp. 1 but Vie corrected me)

67 - Cyerce sp. A

68 - Goniobranchus fidelis

69 - Noumeaella sp. 4

70 - Coryphellina sp.

71 - Phyllodesmium pinnatum

72 - Phyllodesmium poindimiei

73 - Bermudella brunneomaculata (originally I thought Okenia brunneomaculata but Vie corrected me)

74 - Coryphellina delicata 

75 - Coryphellina exoptata (originally I thought Flabellina exoptata but Vie corrected me)

76 - Elysia sp. 20

77 - Favorinus tsuruganus

78 - Diniatys dentifer

79 - Atagema intecta

80 - Thuridilla albopustulosa

Having a staring contest with a planktonic critter.