Home Again

Today started at 2:30am in Jakarta.  I tried to make coffee in the room, but it was so bad.  I had breakfast included and it started at 2am, but I just didn't want to make the effort.

At checkin, the ANA agent made me weigh my carryon bag but didn't give me a hard time about it.  He just put a tag on it that it was approved for carryon.  Thank God.  I don't think I have any fight left in me.

Immigration was a breeze.  Then I had a VERY long way to walk to the gate.  I used one of those mini-carts and it really helped.

This was a great trip.  There were very nice people on board and it was terrific to see Graham again.  We didn't see as many little critters as I would have liked.

I think maybe there should be a liveaboard that only dives jetties and piers.  How cool would that be?

OK, here is my summary.  

68 distinct species of nudibranchs.

One enormous glassy nautilus sea elephant that got 998 likes, 28 comments and 57 shares.  So many comments the moderator turned them off!

I did 27 dives this trip bringing me up to a total of 2,612 lifetime dives.

Here is a photo of most of the crew on the bow:

Once I get home, I am off to Bentonville where my sister is getting married.  Then I'll be back Indonesia.  I'll be back.

Jakarta Jump

Today, all I do is fly to Jakarta.  Three domestic flights.  I already got an email that there will be an hour delay on the second/third flights.  So I am glad to have an overnight in Anara hotel so that I will be just fine making my International flight.

It seemed like FOREVER waiting in the Kupang Airport again.  I finished another book: Mirror Image by Lauren E. Rico.  We finally boarded our flight to Subaraya.  And our flight to Jakarta was the exact same flight number, but a different seat number.  Weird.  So I asked the attendant if we just stay on the plane and change seats.  Nope.  There was an aircraft change.  Huh.  It was super-weird.  Everyone going to Jakarta had to get on this little bus.  Then a guy got on and handed out boarding passes.  I have never seen this done before.  Then, I kid you not... the bus went 20 yards to a different aircraft and we all boarded.

Whatever.

I was glad that this flight went pretty quickly.  However, once we landed, Todd said that our bags were still sitting in Subaraya.  WTF?  He has air tags on them.  I decided not to worry about it.  That maybe his and Rick's bags got delayed, but not mine.  Besides, I've heard that sometimes there is a delay on those air tags but I didn't say anything.

Woo Hoo!  Our bags were on the conveyor belt.  I didn't even have to wait for mine.  Then Todd, Rick, Dennis and I rode the tram over to the International Terminal.  We were all staying at Anara.  It was a bit tricky with four bags since they will not let us use a luggage trolley after a certain point.  But we got to the other side and then had to ask a few people how to get to the hotel.  We had to take an elevator to Level 1 but there wasn't enough room in one for all of us.  So Todd got on a separate one and somehow got lost.  I guess he went to Level G and then couldn't get back on.  OMG.  I waited for a bit to be polite, but then I asked Rick if he was ok waiting alone for Todd.   

I was so happy to check in to Anara.  I ordered a margherita pizza but they didn't have it.  They suggested Hawaiian style.  I said yes but to leave off the pineapple.  It turns out it was pretty good.  I am always craving cheese after these international trips.

I didn't get to bed until like 11pm and I had to be up around 2:30am.  Oh well, even just a few hours alone in a clean bed is totally worth it.

Singing during Tips

This is the last day of diving.  We have two morning dives and then we offgas before our flight tomorrow mid-morning.

I woke up pretty early and caught up on many things.  Alvi and Zafer are flying out today.  A few people are not diving today.

We are here in Alor now.  Although it is over on the other side from where I usually dive.

The first dive was called Fairground Attraction.  I didn't find many interesting nudis, but I did find a Leaf Scorpionfish and showed it to the guide so he could show others.

The second dive was just an exploration dive.  I found a few Jorunna funebris and one posed for me.

After lunch, many went on a tour of the local village.  I have done that before, so I passed on it.  I just slept and took my time packing.  

Some went to the market and bought some fruit to bring back to us for a snack.

We had a last dinner with the remaining group.  Then they brought the whole crew in and had each one of them say hello and their position and where they were from.  Here is Melki, our dive guide talking.

After that, they went to each one of us to ask us what our favorite part of the trip was.  For me, I said... the fact that the crew cheered each time the skiff departed and returned, how they FOLDED our wetsuits and had them ready for us each dive.  And then for the sightings underwater... the Glassy Nautilus and 68 Nudibranch Species.

Finally, while we paid our bills for lattes, alcohol and tip they sang us songs!  I've never seen this done before.  It was so charming.  They all sang their hearts out to an Indonesian Love Song.  For one tune, Craig and Betsy got up and danced.  And they rest of us did for Twist and Shout.  Craig also played a song or two on the guitar.  

I did find one more new nudi on the second dive.  This completes the list.

68 - Verconia simplex

Here is the trending graph for the trip.

This Jetty is Jumpin'

The internet is so slow this morning.  Starlink is usually pretty good in the morning when I am the only one up.  Oh well.

I caught a post from Nat Geo about Nudis this morning:  Warning—looking at nudibranchs may cause excessive awe

There has been some concern that our flight from Alor to Kupang has been/will be canceled.  Whatever.   I am not worrying about it but others are.

At first breakfast this morning, we ran out of peanut butter.  Put enough Americans on a dive boat and that is bound to happen.  Maybe I should pack some next trip.

This morning we dove a little alcove where Larry Smith coined the term critter diving.  I was shown some mushroom coral pipefish.  I took a quick look but then moved on.  I have nudis to find.

I stayed down so long I came up with a different group and I noticed on the safety stop that the screws in my tray were coming loose.  I had the crew help me tighten them back down with an allen wrench.

After the dive I actually had hot water and some pressure in my shower.  Hallelujah.  Yesterday I had to sit in the show naked, wet and a head full of shampoo waiting for some water pressure to come back so I could rinse it out.  I know, high class problems.

Then we had second breakfast.  This was just chicken soup and hard boiled eggs, but also sliced fruit.  Every time I hear about second breakfast, I think of my Grandpa who was a farmer, got up early and always had second breakfast.

I noticed that on iNaturalist, I get great response from the Nudi experts, but when I post a flatworm for ID, I get zero response.  Where are those experts?

On the second dive, we went to another area Graham thought was hot the last time he dove it a dozen years ago.  But now, there is a jetty there.  We dove the jetty and it was INCREDIBLE!!!  There were critters and nudis everywhere.  I came up from the dive singing... "My kind of dive, the jetty is" to the tune of "My kind of town, Chicago is".

Graham made a very special itinerary for us finding the lushest, coraly-est places to dive.  But the one I got most excited about was a mucky ugly concrete and rebar trash filled jetty called Pelabuhan Eray.  Go figure.

We love it so much we dove it again.

At the end of the dives, this little children were waving and watching us.  Like we were aliens.  I waved and yelled “I love you” like we do in Alor.  But they didn’t know how to say that so I just gave them the little heart sign with my hands and they did it back.

I even found an Ornate Ghost Pipefish with eggs!  I put it through ChatGPT but I don't think it did the best job.

The Original:

Chat GPT:

Dinner was amazing.  They did surf and turf on the BBQ.  The meat is venison - a local deer found in Alor.

Nudi Count

60 - Goniobranchus sp. (reticulata)

Goniobranchus sp. 5 in Soong et al., 2020

61 - Diversidoris crocea

62 - Goniobranchus kuniei

    

63 - Thorunna daniellae

64 - Thorunna australis

65 - Hypselodoris paradisa

66 - Phyllodesmium longicirrum

67 - Caloria indica

Chicago Frogfish

Today we are returning back to Romang and we are going to be diving a site that looks like the movie Avatar.  

Sure enough on the second dive, there were bubbles coming up from the reef.  In one section they were all in a row, like a wall of bubbles.  There were also a couple of pinnacles to explore which was very cool.

They served the weirdest green gelatin for dessert at lunch.  I tried it.  The flavor was sort of muted.  Not my favorite.

On the third dive, I found a reddish orange frogfish.  Deep in a crevice.  Nobody had found one on this trip yet.  I banged my tank and Craig came over to take video of it too.  Woot!

The crew set up dinner outside for us.  It was very nice to sit under the stars.  Although a bit tight for all of us to sit around this table.  

As I was taking it all in, I realized that the two crew waiting on us were both wearing Chicago baseball caps:  White Sox and Bulls!  I had to have a picture.

Nudi Lineup

54 - Thuridilla sp.

55 - Jorunna funebris

56 - Chelidonura amoena

57 - Aplysia nigrocincta

58 - Dematobranchus sp.

59 - Coryphellina exoptata

Damar Island and a Taste of Italy

Today we are headed to Damar Island for three dives.  Only four more days of diving.  So sad.

I was done with my nudi count and blog early so I got a chance to keep working on my Alor ID book.  I still have a bit to go.  Then there will be cleanup.

Dennis isn’t feeling well so there were only four of us on the boat.  David called me down deep to see a Reticuladia fungia.  I just took a couple of shots before going back up.  My goal is to stay far away from deco today.

At breakfast, I gave Dennis the DayQuil I had packed.  I hope it helps him.

On the first dive, David and I saw a sea krait swimming in the shallows.

Second dive was fabulous.  A gorgeous wall and no current.  We saw lots of species.  At the end Mariasol had me swim over to the coral with a Nembrotha kubyrana in it.  I told her I had just photographed that one.  She was also trying to show me a second one, which I did not see.  Then I surfaced with snot under my mask.  Oh man… nobody said diving is sexy.

We were supposed to dive at 2:30pm.  While I was resting that changed to 4:30pm.   I understand the need to be flexible, but I really like the liveaboards and resorts that say a time and stick to it.   But we are having and adventure, so I am trying to be adventurous.  So, time to nap.

Graham found a nice dusk dive spot and tied his orange safety sausage to mark it.  He said that the hardest part of doing that was to find any dead spot to tie it up to.  Everything is so healthy here.  During the briefing we decided the dive site name would be: Red Hot Sausage.  And Dennis could clear his ears, so he is back in action.

The Italian girls took over the galley and made pasta for dinner.  They were so excited about it.  They played Italian music as well.

This is a nudi that I already have on the list, Phyllidiella elegans.  But I love this pattern.  It looks like the saddest, grumpiest nudibranch ever:

Slug Mugs

50 - Nembrotha kubaryana

51 - Phyllidiopsis krempfi

52 - Halgerda carlsoni

53 - Discodoris boholensis

Dai Island - Dive #2600

I guess Dai Island is supposed to be as good if not better than Dawari yesterday.

There are three villages and depending on which reef you dive, you have to ask permission from the village.  If you do not, you can be fined like 5 million rupiahs.  And the village you have to ask doesn't always line up with the location of the reef.

The boat guys took a gift of fuel over to the island before we went diving there.

When Graham first talked about this trip with me, he warned me that it wouldn't be the usual nudi/macro trip.  As I read his itinerary, three words came to mind:

1. Culture
2. Adventure
3. Exploration

We are definitely hitting all three.

The first dive was really fun.  There were two Napoleon wrasse in the beginning and a school of barracuda, then a school of jacks.  I shot a handful of nudis.  One was deep on a rock and I was almost out of bottom time at that depth, so I picked up the rock and took it shallower.

I learned after that Craig and Betsy flooded one of their camera housings.  They are taking it pretty well.  He bought a bottle of sopi last night from the village.  Now they have an excuse for more Sopi Martinis.  Although they didn't skip a beat and were diving again right away with another housing.  They must bring extra.  Wow.

Update: I found out over dinner that they only got water on the electronics that detect if there is a water leak in Betsy's housing.  Well, it did its job but now it won't work anymore.  They can still use the housing but the electronic leak detector is kaput.  

I got a hydroid hit on my left hand.  Luckily I started carrying Cortizone so I put some on it and covered it with band aids.

On my second dive of the day, I hit 2600 lifetime dives.  I have every single one logged.  Woo Hoo!

After dive three, we saw jumping mobula rays.  They were leaping out of the water and doing tricks.  They were very far away and didn’t do it for an extended period of time so, no pictures.

We all felt lazy because we only did three dives and didn't do a cultural tour.

I finished my fourth book of the trip called Trust Noone by Mary Burton.  It was pretty good.

Limbo Line

44 - Madrella sanguinea

45 - Phyllidia coelestis

46 - Tambja morosa

47 - Phyllidiopsis xishaensis

48 - Tritoniopsis elegans

49 - Tambja sp.