Saturday, November 30, 2024

Mr. Grinch

Well, I am about a third of the way through my trip.  I am in a good place so far.  I am healthy.  I have found over 100 nudis.  My gear is functioning.  One of two new wetsuits broken in.  I still have some new toys to get out: a diopter and a snoot.

Tony and Tracy leave this morning and there will be five more divers coming.  Which is great because only Sam and I are left as divers!

The morning dives were good.  Chris and his wife joined us.  In between dives we came back to the resort and I got to learn all about how they met.  It is such a cool life they have led.  First working in the SCUBA and yachting industry and then transitioning to pearl farming.  They are so darling and seem really happy.  She is working on a screenplay and he likes to tinker with motorbikes.

It was only me and Nikko on the afternoon dive.  

For the surface interval I stayed in my wetsuit and just had a coffee.

I did the house reef as a night dive.  It was fabulous.  I saw the biggest Jorunna funebris!  Here is just its head.



I wore my Grinch dress to dinner because it is the first day of December.  Since we have new guests, Timo did a big presentation again.  I listened, but only partially.  

107 - Facelind sp. 2





108 - Goniobranchus albonares



109 - Goniobranchus coi


110 - Lomanotus vermiformis



111 - Elysia pusilla


112 - Melibe engeli


113 - Caloria indica



114 - Hallaxa fuscescens


115 - Armina papillata


116 - Dermatobranchus kokonas


117 - Goniobranchus fidelis


118 - Philinopsis gardineri


119 - Hypselodoris zephyra





Friday, November 29, 2024

Custom Channel Wetsuit

I put on my new custom wetsuit from Sea Gods.  It is awesome and even has a relief zipper so that pee doesn’t stay in the wetsuit.

We are having a Mucky Morning today which means that we will stay local and do the sites that are muck.  We did Matap then Pussy Galore.

I got to know Sam and also Wulan.  Wulan is 25 and just finished her divemaster and is training to work at Alami Alor.  She is very cute.  I am glad to see they have a female divemaster in training.  She even joined us for a meal.

I had a nice dinner sitting with Lauren and Max.  They have such an interesting life.

On the night dive, Nikko pointed out a shrimp in an anemone I knew looked weird.  But only later reviewing my pictures did I see that it has SO MANY babies in its belly.  Wow!  They look like little aliens.


Slug Mugs

92 - Nembrotha milleri

93 - Dermatobranchus rodmani


94 - Dermatobranchus striatus


95 - Phyllidia babai


96 - Dendrodoris denisoni


97 - Ceratosoma trilobatum


98 - Thorunna daniellae


99 - Coryphellina sp.


It is crazy, this ID covers many that are similar so I am putting other shots here too!



100 - Phyllodesmium colemani


101 - Hypselodoris nigrostriata


102 - Antonietta sp.1

103 - Phyllodesmium sp. 5


104 - Caryophyllidia dorid sp. 3

105 - Atagema intecta


106 - Phyllodesmium lizardensis





Thursday, November 28, 2024

Doctor's Appointment (for my Air 2)

Holy crap.  I was going thru my “not nudi” photos and found a picture of the ghostpipefish with a clutch of babies and you can even see the little eyes peeking out!!  (blow up the picture)


The current was pretty strong at Boardroom.  During the safety stop I took off my ankle weights and handed them to Nikko.  I don’t need them anymore for this wetsuit.  Yahoo!

We had Blue Whales again on the surface interval.  And this time they came really close.

My Air 2 had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon with Uri.  

I did not go on an afternoon house reef dive since my Air 2 was at the hospital.  I slept so hard that the only thing that woke me up was my alarm.  Thank god I set it.

Uri worked on my Air 2 and was sorry to tell me that it still seemed to be leaking a little.

The night dive was great and I didn’t even see any bubbles coming out of my Air 2 anymore.  Nikko said he saw just a few tiny little bubbles.  Hey, I’ll take it!  We saw tons of different frogfish and a Bobbit Worm.

After the night dive, my new custom wetsuit was on my bed.  Woot!  I am super excited.

A new gal is here named Sam who also likes the nudis/critters.  She lives in Bonaire but is from NYC.  It will be fun to slug with another enthusiast.

Nudis

77 - Phyllodesmium cf. opalescens


78 - Reticulidia fungia

79 - Flabellina sp. 3


80 - Phyllodesmium undulatum
81 - Trapania gibbera


82 - Unidentia sandramillenae




83 - Godiva sp. 2


84 - Samla bicolor


85 - Dendrodoris nigra


86 - Tenellia sp. 15


87 - Jorunna sp. 7




88 - Atagema spongiosa


89 - Costasiella kuroshimae


90 - Costasiella usagi


91 - Carminodoris flammea



Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Two Blue Whales!

Our first dive was on The Great Wall of Pantar.  And there was a good amount of current but we were able to duck into some small pockets where it wasn’t too bad.

Then we had two blue whales on our surface interval.  So cool.  We sat on the boat with them for a while and watched them spout and I witnessed at least one fluke.  Sorry, no pictures as I didn't bring an above water camera.

Then when we went to the Jetty, there was a mola mola that jumped.  I didn’t even know they could jump out of the water.

I also made an appointment for Uri to take a look at my Air 2.  It continues to have a little leak that I would love to get fixed.  He is confident he can work on it.

At lunch Max and Lauren showed up.  They were able to get my batteries and my wetsuit is almost here.  Woo Hoo!  I hugged Lauren and called her my travel angel.  Max asked about Graham Abbott.  He’s the one who introduced me to Alami Alor.

I jumped the house reef and looked for the octopus again.  No luck.

The night dive was fabulous again.  I love diving with Nikko.  We saw at least three different kinds of octopus.  Lots of nudis and other crazy stuff.

At dinner, Timo and I both showed up in colorful underwater garb, so I had Alex take our picture.  


I had absolutely zero turkey on this Thanksgiving.  It’s ok though because I swear I eat a turkey sandwich almost every single day.

Here are the slugs for today…

63 - Jorunna funebris


64 - Tambja kava


65 - Hypselodoris lacuna


66 - Chromodoris joshi


67 - Goniobranchus hintuanensis


68 - Phyllidia picta


69 - Nembrotha sp. 2


70 - Hypselodoris whitei


71 - Petalifera ramosa


72 - Cadlinella ornatissima


73 - Aegires villosus


74 - Phyllodesmium tuberculatum


75 - Pleurobranchus weberi



76 - Hexabranchus sanguineus