Kick Off

I woke up early today.  And there is a kettle in my room now so I can have coffee here and read and relax and even have WiFi.  I used to have to get ready and trek down to the dining room for all of this.  It’s nice… and the birds are singing cute little songs outside.

We dove two dives in the morning, but these don’t count as the workshop did not yet officially start.

The workshop kicked off at 1pm-ish.  We had to wait for Jim as his morning dives went long.  Mike kicked off by saying we all had to go back to immigration in manila to get our passports stamped.  He was very serious.  Silence from everyone…

April Fools!!!

As Mike announced Jim he played some bagpipe music and some pumped up music for Terry.  We learned that there are 1200 slugs found in this area.  Last year the group found 454 species.

This is the sixth year for the Anilao Nudibranch Citizen Science Workshop and Jim will be graphing it all.

Learned the process of providing our species.  We have to provide our list by 7:15am each day.  And if we want any shots in the review it should be on the frogfish by then too.

While getting ready for the afternoon dives, my housing battery stayed  I had to change the battery in my housing

Terry dove with our group on the first dive on Koala.

He has a license to collect nudis and carries a mesh bag with all his tools.  He collected one and has it out in salt water on the dive deck.  He thinks it might be a new one… possibly a Cratena of some sort?

I asked him if he had ever been confronted by a local for collecting and had to show his permits… and he has!  Can you imagine?

On the second dive of the afternoon, Pirjo lost her light and pointer… Rainer found it and brought back to her.  Mario had a cramp in his leg and had to go up early.  I was shooting a Trapania darvelli, and then lost the group.  Gah, the current was so bad that I had to go up early alone.  So sad.

At dinner, I pitched the idea of a reality tv show to Terry.  He loves the movie The Big Year too!  He said that the new NSSI3 version of the book will still be a year and a half out.

Georgina and I decided we are doing a blackwater dive tomorrow night at 7pm Francis coming too.

On a personal note, I got a voicemail that my Grandmother’s youngest sister, Aunt Tee who is 97 years old is in hospice.  I am so sad.  She was a huge fan of my diving and would kick my ass in scrabble when I visited her in Ft Lauderdale. What a really special person.

I was too tired (and a little sad) to sit with everyone and review my photos.  I needed to sleep and do it in the morning.

Slugs for today…

12 - Glossodoris pallida

13 - Chromodoris strigata

14 - Doriprismatica atromarginata

15 - Chromodoris annae

16 - Mexichromis trilineata

17 - Phyllidiella pustulosa

18 - Ardeadoris angustolutea

19 - Chromodoris alcalai

20 - Nembrotha lineolata

21 - Goniobranchus fidelis

22 - Glossodoris buko

23 - Chromodoris sp. 2 (in Nudibranch ID App)

24 - Phyllidia varicosa

25 - Chromodoris lochi

26 - Phyllidia exquisita

27 - Chromodoris colemani

28 - Chromodoris michaeli

29 - Halgerda batangas

30 - Phyllidia coelestis

31 - Chromodoris willani

32 - Hypselodoris decorata

33 - Goniobranchus geometricus 

34 - Unknown (maybe Chromodoris sp. 2 in NSSI2 but missing white lines on the gills)

35 - Goniobranchus reticulatus

36 - Tenellia melanobrachia

37 - Hypselodoris variobranchia

38 - Hypselodoris tryoni

39 - Phyllidiella rudmani

40 - Thorunna furtiva

41 - Glossodoris acosti

42 - Goniobranchus verrieri

43 - Bermudella brunneomaculata

44 - Phyllidiopsis xishaensis

45 - Glossodoris cf. cincta

46 - Trapania darvelli

Day Zero

I slept so well on this ferry.  It was nice to have our own private room.  I got to work on finishing my slugs and figured out that I have internet still through Starlink.  Wow.

At 7am the crew brought breakfast to my cabin.  It was pretty bland but it tasted ok to me.  We then went through the disembarking stage which is crazy because these porters come and take the luggage and then no matter how much you pay them, they make a face like it is not enough.  Well, God love ‘em for trying but we followed the recommendation from 3P.

Then we had a one hour drive from the Batangas Pier to Anilao.

We set up our rooms, our cameras and our gear and arranged for a 2pm dive.  Everything has been upgraded at the resort.  It feels so fancy!

When putting a charged battery in my Kraken, I noticed that the o-rings needed cleaning, so I did that and then I could not get the light to turn on again.  WTF?  I kept adjusting and trying and even messaged Mike about it.

After lunch, I came back to it and determined that I put the o-ring back in the wrong place.  OMG.  I am so ridiculous.  I moved it and all was working fine.  Whew.

I met another diver, Mario.  He is from California and just started diving in 2021 in Cozumel and is now addicted to SCUBA.  Super fun guy to talk to and having the enthusiasm of a newcomer to the group is energizing.

Robin is here with her 12 year old granddaughter Jeanne.  So cute.  Of course, Jim Anderson is here… our unofficial leader and slug count.  He has an iBook of the Anilao Nudibranchs that he keeps up to date:

https://books.apple.com/us/book/anilao-nudibranchs/id1210743768

I put the Pikachu (Thecacera sp. 8) tissue box cover (that Cheryl gave me years ago) on the table for everyone to find.  Everyone was tickled by it and even took pictures.

I’m going to post at least one nudi-themed article of clothing, trinket, etc each day of Slugfest.  Today is Day Zero as the Festival has not yet started.

Our first afternoon dive was very good.  I found a lot of things and Glenn our dive guide found several.  I enjoyed looking as much as the finding/shooting.  The second dive at Buceo was so boring, which is weird because I remember that last year it was outstanding.  It was windy and a little rough at the surface, but not too bad.

I got to have dinner with Anouk, Georgina and Hannah.  They are so fabulous.  

I know Anouk from Slugfest 2018.  We dove together here and Romblon.  She is from Belgium and now lives in Tulamben, Bali and can dive for slugs right from her doorstep.  My dream!  

Hannah is German and knows Christianne from Villa Markisa, Tulamben and Georgina is from South Africa.  She helped revise Terry Gosliner’s book, Southern African Sea Slugs.  These ladies are dialed in.

https://divetek.co.za/product/southern-african-sea-slugs/

The two big topics of conversation at dinner were…

Do the slugs we find pre-workshop count for the numbers?  The answer is no.  The workshop officially starts at 1pm tomorrow.

How will boats be assigned?  There is a suggestion that boats will be assigned via lottery… but Anouk/Hannah/Georgina WANT to dive together, so they don’t like that idea.  Interesting, I honestly don’t care as long as I can keep diving.

Here are today’s slugs:

1 - Rostanga bifurcata

2 - Hypselodoris katherinae

3 - Phyllodesmium opalescens

4 - Coryphellina pseudolotus

5 - Atys multistriatus

6 - Mexichromis mariei

7 - Favorinus tsuruganus

8 - Hypselodoris infucata

9 - Elysia sp. 37

10 - Eubranchus sp. 26

11 - Thuridilla albopustulosa

Ramblin' on from Romblon

We leave tonight on the overnight ferry.  We are still going to do two dives this morning.

The weather was cloudy today, but there was a double rainbow on the walk to the boat.  Bobby continued to find great slugs on our last dives.  I worked harder on my photography and did some snooting.  I found out I love the chunk-chunk sound of when I have locked in on a subject and I flip on the diopter.  It is pretty satisfying.

We saw the Melibe colemani one last time.  I shot it and saw later that it was laying eggs.  Whoa.  I really should have snooted this guy but I was just so happy to stare at it for a while.

We had lunch and then had some downtime to pack and get ready for dinner.  I was able to stay in my room, but Francis and Pirjo had to pack up and get out of their room because someone else was coming.  I told them they can hang in my room if they want, but there is a lounge in the office area.

I streamed some comedy and worked on my slugs.

At dinner I had one last coffee ice cream before we headed to the ferry terminal on trikes.  The ferry was late in departing and I fell full asleep in the waiting area.  Once we got to our first class cabins I was ready for bed.  I finished my book instead of working on my slugs.  

Last List for Romblon

154 - Chromodoris lochi 

I guess this guy was hungry!  Its head was buried deep into that sponge.

155 - Polycera sp. 8

156 - Mexichromis pusilla

157 - Phyllidiopsis fissurata

158 - Tenellia sp. 82

159 - Thordisa sp. 17

160 - Thordisa sp.

These last two were right next to each other and SO cryptic, I could barely see them.