Move Like Melting

Today we had two great morning dives... although super shallow again.  So much so that I really don't want to pay an extra $30/day for Nitrox.  There is no benefit.  So I switched to air and reset both dive computers.

At lunch, I gave Gary my rubber chicken since he was showing so much interest in the crocodile squeaky toy.  I explained the concept of Chicken Stu to him... and the fact that our group is so responsible ,we really don't need it.

We went back to the same area for two afternoon dives... no night dive today.  I'm good with that.  So basically we dove the same-ish dive site for four dives today.

On the afternoon dive, the guides were attaching the crocodile and chicken stu to different divers without them knowing.  Squeaky toys everywhere.

There is this crazy old Filipino song called Pamela 1 "doo doo doo doo doot", Pamela 2... and all staff members remember it and keep singing it to me.  Lee Ann described the lyrics as a silly sexy song.  

[Intro]

Let's play

One, who's betting

Two, come on in

Three, four

Pamela  one, pamela-mela one

Pamela  two, pamela-mela two

Pamela  three, pamela-mela three

Pamela  four, pamela-mela four

[Hook]

Pamela  one, move your body

Pamela  two, move like this

Pamela  three, it's tickling

Pamela  four, imitate F4

[Chorus]

Dance, move like melting

Shake, beg like you're going deaf

Just don't give your head a headache

Everyone keeps commenting about my relief zipper.  They think it is funny at first and then they really want one.  I keep sending them to look at Sea Gods wetsuits.

We saw a HUGE group of Doto ussi hiding in some fire coral… which is super weird because they are usually on hydroids.  The guides also moved a couple of them off of the habitat for better photos, which I don't necessarily like.

On the last dive of the day I found an Elysia marginata up on a rock and thought I should snoot it.  So I set that up, but the snoot strobe was still attached to the arm.  Meh, I didn't do great.  So I decided to take the snoot all the way off.  That was better.  Then JR came along and asked if he could help.  I enthusiastically handed him my strobe.  These shots were awesome AND another slug came into frame and I got snooted mating photos!

During that dive I also realized I forgot to mount camera correctly in the housing.  It still worked mostly, just during the snoot session, I couldn't always get the shutter to click.

It got so dark that at the end of the dive I was using my black light torch to light up the coral.  We had to surface at a certain time though so that the boat could get back to the resort before sunset.  They don't have any running lights for nighttime.  Yikes!

Gary had some beer brought on the boat for a little celebration but I don't think anyone drank one except him.

At dinner I sat with the Aussie crew.  There was a delicious raw fish starter and Karen and I asked for seconds.  We shared stories and book recommendations.

Gary thinks we are at 100 species overall.  My count is 51 now.

42 - Hypselodoris decorata

43 - Doto ussi 

44 - Thorunna furtiva

45 - Elysia sp. 8

46 - Elysia marginata

47 - Elysia pusilla

48 - Tenellia sp. 6

49 - Tenellia sp. 79

50 - Dermatobranchus fortunatus

51 - Samla bicolor

Night Dive Navigator

Today was a cloudy almost stormy day.  The best thing is that underwater, it really doesn't matter.

As I walked to breakfast, I heard a dog barking.  I looked over and saw that it was just Gary.  He has this talent to bark EXACTLY like a dog.  A man of many talents.

My snippet of the morning was that there is a "finger patterned" Nembrotha lineolata.  They found it the other day.  I didn't see it.  I'll see if I can get a copy of the picture.

I had such a nice chat with Alisha on the way to the divesite.  She worked in the dive industry in Australia but has been away from it for like six years.  She still does marine biology research.  And her mom is also starting to suffer from dementia, even though she is very young.  I could totally empathize.

The resort is down one guide, so Anne-Li and I got split up into two different groups.  I was put with some less experienced divers, so they put the Assistant Manager of the resort, Alisa with me.  It was really great and we found some terrific things.  After the first dive we were at the surface for quite some time as we were the last to be picked up.  She is really darling.

Gary was rallying the guests for a night snorkel, but I would much rather dive as it is hard to take photos on a snorkel with a bigger camera.  I asked John if he would be interested in doing an unguided house reef night dive and he said he would.  Hooray!

The afternoon dive was just a mass of divers on a silty site.  There were some good finds though.

Anne-Li and Caroline joined John and I for the night dive.  I really wanted to get to the wall.  So I had us surface swim to the moored boat in harbor and then dropped down right on the reef.  It worked like a charm.  I even navigated back to the spot we descended.  I was so much happier doing this than just snorkeling the house reef.

Gary has put his stickers everywhere at the resort.  It is appropriate to put one in the dive shop, but he also put them on really nice woodwork in the dining room and the bathroom.  I jokingly apologized to Jamie the resort manager on Gary's behalf.  

Jamie also walked me through how the photo display works.  The have a certain album for current guests that just displays photos in random order like a screensaver.  Then every once in a while Jamie archives these photos to a backup.

I showed my cross stitch patterns to some folks at dinner.  Here are some of the stitch/photo pairings:

Here are today's slugs:

32 - Goniobranchus verrieri

33 - Caloria indica

34 - Thuridilla albopustulosa

35 - Sakuraeolis  nungunoides

36 - Mariaglaja sandrana

37 - Notarchus indicus

38 - Diniatys dubius

39 - Halgerda batangas

40 - Miamira miamirana

41 - Goniobranchus reticulatus

Snippet Learning

At breakfast Gary showed me a good visual diagram on how to tell Thurdilla apart by their rhinophores:

This is super helpful!  

Costasiella is pronounced "Cos-stay-ziella".  I have been saying it wrong all this time... and with my Chicago way of pronouncing things sometimes people have no idea what species I am talking about.

Instead of lectures, I am learning from him in snippets.

He had me read at least three etymology descriptions of new species he found hilarious. One is for the Murphydoris polkadotsa which is named for the itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini.  He had a hand in that one.

We coached the dive staff to be a little more clear on dive times so we could stay on schedule and do four dives a day.  Larry (the head dive guide) did pretty good letting us know when to be in the dive shop for the briefing and when to be on the boat.  I appreciate that.

Anne-Li and I get to be the first group in the water today.  (It is going to rotate every day.). The first dive was in a sandy area where we searched for Shawn the Sheep and we found many... I think I got a good shot.  Then we came back to the resort dock to bring back tanks so they could be refilled in time for the afternoon/night dives.  The second dive was on a gorgeous wall where the visibility was incredible.  I enjoyed the eye candy but we only found two species of nudis and only one was new.  So the slug count started really slow for me today.

Gary is staying in his wetsuit all day.  Even eating his lunches in it.  Luckily, the dining room is outdoors and on chairs that can handle it... but yuck.  I couldn't stay in my wetsuit all day long.  In fact, any opportunity I get to wiggle out of mine and get dry, I do it.

I wore my red nudi hood on the afternoon dive and I had some paparazzi taking pictures of it.  It is super itchy though with the velcro strap under the chin, so I don't think I am going to wear it regularly.

We had some time in between the afternoon dive and the night dive.  We had some egg rolls delivered.  They were so delicious.  I think we need them every day for an afternoon snack.

As we walked back to the boat, som kids from town were playing and swimming off the dock.  They were so polite and asked us all where we were from.

The night dive was FABULOUS.  The House Reef definitely redeemed itself.  I found an ornate ghostpipefish and a wonderpus all by myself.

It was nice to shower and chat with everyone over our sightings.  I definitely missed several that I would have loved to have seen.  

One of the women in our group had a friend die back home.  I am so sad for her.  She said she knew it was coming but I'm sure it was still devastating.

Dessert was caramelized pineapple and ice cream.  OMG, it was so good that I asked for any leftover pineapple and shared it with the table.

Nudi List

24 - Costasiella kuroshimae

25 - Costasiella sp.

26 - Phyllodesmium briarium

27 - Goniobranchus geometricus

28 - Goniobranchus kuniei

29 - Chromodoris annae

30 - Chromodoris colemani

Check out the split rhinophore!

31 - Ardeadoris egretta

Ramping Up

I am so excited to lock in on searching and shooting these nudis today.  I was glad to get into the water yesterday and ensure all the gear was working, but now I really want to get going on nudi counts.

After breakfast, we finally got on the boat.  OMG, I have never been on such a big skiff/day boat.  They have this wonky ramp that gets set up temporarily (with a human held handrail) we use to go from the dock to the boat.  It's a little nervewracking.

All 13 of us went on the one boat to the same dive site, but at least they divided us up into four groups and Anne-Li and I got the snorkeler in our group so we really just have the dive guide JR to ourselves.  That is good.

The ride to the site was 45 minutes and at some point I knew my bladder wasn't going to make it.  They actually have a toilet on this boat.  It is rudimentary, but I used it successfully.  The other side has a mini kitchen.  

This dive site was WAY better and we dove it twice.  I definitely upped my species count.  It was pretty mucky and silty but it was fun to find stuff.

After making the journey back, it was already 2:30pm which is when the resort told us to be ready for the afternoon dives.  WTF?

We quickly ate lunch and then did an afternoon dive nearby.  Once we returned, it was the time the resort said to be ready for the night dive.  I was exhausted and really with the special morning trip, nobody was going on any night dive.

I had about an hour to work on my nudis and get my list ready for Gary.  He is merging this list with his recent PNG trip list.  I am not really sure why.  I am of course keeping my own list.

I wore my nudi headband to dinner and it took a REALLY long time for anyone to notice it.  But when they did it was pretty funny.  Caroline was so sweet and brought candy from Sweden for everyone to share.

We had lots of friendly banter and story telling at dinner but I left as soon as it was over to go crash.

Slug Count

3 - Pteraeolidia semperi

4 - Phyllidia ocellata

5 - Nembrotha kubaryana

6 - Thuridilla gracilis

7 - Phyllidiella pustulosa

8 - Glossodoris buko

Originally I thought G. pallida.

9 - Miamira sinuata

10 - Jorunna funebris

11 - Sagaminopteron psychedelicum

12 - Glossodoris rufomarginata

13 - Phyllidia sp. 1

14 - Phyllidia varicosa

15 - Plakobranchus papau 

I originally thought this was Plakobranchus ocellatus.

16 - Glossodoris sp. 1

17 - Gymnodoris sp. 23

18 - Nembrotha lineolata

19 - Hypselodoris bullockii

20 - Phyllidia coelestis

21 - Phyllidiopsis krempfi

22 - Phyllidia elegans

23 - Doriprismatica atromarginata