Squid Games

I woke up to breezy thunder, but no rain (yet).

I committed to coming back next year.  But I have a wedding on 12/12 so I will be coming earlier in the season… from 11/14/26 to 12/5/26.

In the morning, we went to Pertamina Jetty.  At Pirjo and my request.  It wasn’t great.  And what we realized later is that we were remembering a different jetty that they don’t dive anymore.  Oh well.  I am still glad we went because I scored a few more new species there.

On the afternoon dive, I went all over the house reef and found the best new nudi right under the dock.  

The night dive was ON FIRE.  We were busy-busy photographing.  And I even shot a couple of squid.

More and more people keep getting sick.  So much so that Alex put out some packets of the local remedy.  Oh man.

Marching On

167 - Mexichromis aurora

168 - Goniobranchus sinensis

169 - Gymnodoris sp. 30

170 - Glossodoris hikuerensis

171 - Dermatobranchus sp. 11

172 - Aegires sp. 3

173 - Dolabella auricularia

Sea Cure Lost and Found

It was super quiet again in the morning.

I snorkeled between the two morning dives.  I don’t see how anybody does that.  It is so annoying.  Especially after SCUBA diving.

On the afternoon dive, I saw the Gymnodoris again and this time you could see what it ate for lunch.

Do you think that is some kind of Phyllidia in there?  Or is that something else?

At the end of the afternoon dive I saw a regulator mouthpiece floating in front of me.  It was my sea cure.  Thank God I saw it and grabbed it.  I don't know what I would have done if I lost it.  The zip tie came a little loose and it fell off.  I think I am going to buy/mold/pack a second sea cure (and many zip ties) for future trips.

The couple from the Netherlands are from Eindhoven.  That is literally the only place I’ve been there… apart from Amsterdam of course.

We had banana ice cream again for dessert.  So good!  I can't wait to make it at home.

While I was reviewing my photos at night, I noticed a crab scurrying along my bedroom floor.  OMG.  I have had geckos, spiders, praying mantis, millipedes in my room but never a crab.  I shooed him out into the bathroom area.  

Quiet Queue

157 - Phyllidiella lizae

158 - Thuridilla gracilis

159 - Ceratosoma sp. 1

160 - Phyllidiella granulata

161 - Phyllidia sp. 3

162 - Thorunna furtiva

163 - Sagaminopteron nigropunctatum

164 - Gymnodoris sp. 3

Marli thinks this one is different from the one I saw previously.

165 - Petalifera sp.

166- Phyllodesmium colemani

Dive #2500

I woke up to an eerie quiet.  It took me a while to figure out that it was because the ocean was so flat today.  Nice.

This morning was my 2500th dive.  Wow.  I am so grateful for each dive that I go on.  There are so many things that can go wrong to cancel a dive.  Some within my control and some not.  I am shocked I have managed to pull it together that many times.

I really worked on my snooting on the first dive.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Coming back from the second dive it was raining cats and dogs again.

One of the guests from the Netherlands was wearing a Minnesota Vikings shirt at lunch!  What?  I guess she is a big fan of this show about them on You Tube.  Who knew?  It is so funny because last week a Canadian guy wearing a Green Bay Packers shirt sat in the same spot.  I shared with her about the Bears and the free hots dogs being given away this week at the Weiners Circle in Chicago.

The night dive at Octopussy Galore was fabulous, helping the counts but it is still pretty slow.

So many people are sick here at the resort.  I guess it is some kind of virus.  I am staying away from them and trying to drink only from my own cup.

Chugging Along

151 - Facelind sp. 2

152 - Phyllidiopsis shireenae

153 - Janolus sp. 8

Pirjo also thinks this might be Janolus tricellariodes.

154 - Dermatobranchus sp. 3

155 - Gymnodoris sp.

156 - Sclerodoris tuberculata

A Private Room

I woke up thinking about my mom in Joplin, Missouri.  She has Alzheimer’s and lives in Memory Care.  She currently has a roommate and we are working to get her a private room.  I wish I could wave a magic wand and make that happen for her.  I am considering spending more time down there in 2026 to give her some relief.

About an hour after I wrote this paragraph, I got a call that she now has her own private room!!  And that this annoying guy who used to bother mom got kicked out of the facility.  We just have to figure out when the move will be happening as my sister Megan will coordinate it.  My family is so ecstatic!!!

We did the jetty again and now there are TWO frogfish near each other.  I tried to get a shot of both, but they were just far enough apart that I couldn’t.

We found a Chromodoris joshi with a split rhinophore.

I got to thinking underwater that it might be tough to cross stitch a Nembrotha sp. 2 because I doubt there is a DMC floss bright enough to capture this bright reddish orange color:

We had some dolphins on the surface interval, but I still didn’t catch them on my Go Pro.

I learned a new word. Slope + Wall = Swall.  Mandarinfish Slope is actually a swall.

On the ride back, the canopy on the boat started falling off.  So we took it off and went topless!

I had a cool afternoon dive where I navigated all the way to the third mooring.  There was a mutilated and dying Phyllidia ocellata.  So sad.

 I also snooted mating Chelidonura varians and could see inside these white balls being exchanged.

I did a surface interval at the pool and there was a drone hovering above!  I later found out that it was one of the guest’s.

I wasn’t tired after dinner for the first time on this trip.  I sat and chatted with Alex and Uri for a bit.

Catalog Continuation

145 - Goniobranchus coi

It almost looks like it has a third rhinophore.

146 - Antonietta sp. 1

147 - Chromodoris strigata

148 - Janolus sp. 1

149 - Godiva sp. 2

150 - Tenellia sp. 79

Two of them mating.

Recharge

I recharged my dive computer battery and changed the battery in my housing.  I also added a couple of floats to my camera arms.  I’m not sure if it helps any.

Oh man, my counts are so low.  I really have to step up my game.  But Pirjo is here so it should get better.

The first two dives today were really good.  Slow and searching for nudis.  It was good to dive with Pirjo again.

There was another big rainshower while I was down on my afternoon dive.

We did get to go on the boat night dive today.  It was great!

I wore my grinch dress to dinner since it is the first day of December.  The dog hated it and growled at me.  Understandable.

We saw this really fat Gymnodoris which probably just ate another huge nudi.  I think it looks like Garfield after eating a lasagna!

Counts are only trickling in.  I am only ahead of one other year now.  I need to keep at it!

I came across this today under a rock.  I was really convinced it was a nudi, but if you look closely, there are the distinct characteristics of a cowrie.  Darn!

The Trickle

138 - Tritonia sp. 10

139 - Paradoris liturata

140 - Thecacera pacifica

141 - Trapania vitta

142 - Ceratosoma gracillimum

143 - Dermatobranchus semilunus

144 - Marionia rubra

Weather Woes

We dove the Cathedral and Wolong Cave again this morning.  There were still good nudis and even a juvenile Spanish Dancer.  Which is good since I was missing a photo for that one.

Pirjo and Francis arrived today.  I got to talk to them over lunch and then Francis and I did an afternoon house reef dive.  It was a little slow but we saw the resident black frogfish, a couple of egg masses and a one eyed eel under the dock.  I found an ornate ghostpipefish on my own and pointed it out to Francis.

I stayed in my wetsuit during the surface interval and read my book.  We were all set to do the 5:30pm night dive when a SERIOUS storm rolled in.  So bad that they actually canceled the boat dive.  It was the right thing to do.  They still allowed us to do the house reef.  But with pouring rain, lightning and thunder… I wasn’t willing to jump back into the same dive site I just got out from.  I’m sure it would have been fine below the surface.  And I think six divers still went.  Rain has only impacted my dives one other time in five years.  And that was just a slight delay.  It didn’t get canceled.  So that’s a pretty good track record.

Pirjo has some edits to my species list.  I am glad because I was just kinda winging it on my own.  And moving fast, so I’m sure I made mistakes.

Mona was singing the chicken dance for some reason, so I told her the story about Chicken Stu.  They have one here too.  I guess a group brought it recently.  They call it the Chicken of Shame.  The legend lives on.

Once the boat dive was canceled, I took a shower in the rain with lightning and thunder going on around me.  It was pretty cool.  We lost power and the backup generator kicked in.  This is a real storm.

Little List

134 - Samla sp. 1

135 - Trapania palmula

136 - Phyllidiella nigra

137 - Phyllidiella annulata