Cookie Monster

I am going to start thinking of the call to prayer as the call to nudis because that is about the time I start into my process.

It was a nice calm quiet breakfast.  For a while Pirjo and I had the resort all to ourselves and were having breakfast.  I asked how she and Francis met.  Pirjo was studying in France during college (she is Finnish) and her host family was Francis’ aunt.  They had a long distance love letter romance before they got married.  Such a cute story.

I could not stop eating all the oatmeal cookies during the surface interval.  OMG.  They are so good.  Pirjo even gave me a hard time.  I skipped lunch dessert.

I was enchanted by the first dive site called School’s Out.  For some reason I barely remembered going there last year.  This little village has the steepest steps ever!  And when we surfaced, the kids were getting out of school early because it was a Friday.  There were so many of them and you could hear them chattering about their upcoming weekend.  So cute.

We tried to dive Max’s Point but it was way too rough.  We saw some huge waves crash against the rocks and saw strong current so we went back to Apuri Bay.

I found lots of nudis on the house reef but not the little blue one again.  It was hiding.

Nikko showed me his blue boat he uses to go home when he has time off.  I asked the name and he didn’t have one!  I suggested Nudiful.  I don’t think it went over well.  Ha ha.

On the night dive, Sam made the nudi sign and showed me something far off.  It was a yellow flatworm swimming.  We have to work on his hand signals.

The count goes on…

166. Dendronotus regius

167. Tambja kava

168. Elysia marginata

169. Phyllidia exquisita

170. Tritoniopsis elegans

171. Glossodoris pallida

172. Chromodoris joshi

173. Aldisa williamsi

174. Trapania palmula

175. Glossodoris hikuerensis

176. Goniodoris sp. 7

177. Moridilla sp.

178. Caloria indica

179. Eubranchus sp. 1

180. Thorunna florens

Penis Fencing Flatworms

I woke up and there was no power.  The generator did not kick in.  What I don’t understand is that the Mosques still were able to project the call to prayer!  Maybe they have their own generators?

Well, nudis wait for no one.  I still worked on them in the dark.  At some point in the morning, the power came back on.

I have officially been here one week.  The lunches and dinners are repeating now.  I don’t mind, they are so delicious.

On the way to the first dive we encountered an ENORMOUS pod of melon head dolphin.  We spent some time with them and I took some Go Pro 360 video.

We had an all girl boat with Pirjot, Lisa, the snorkeler from Hong Kong and me.  I contemplated… SCUBA is the only activity where you don’t have to pause to pee.  There really isn’t anything else where that is acceptable.

The first two dives were beautiful, but the nudi count was slow.  We had some current on the second dive.

When the meal is described at the end the girls say “Enjoy!” and we have taken to saying it with her.

We had THE BEST oatmeal cookies at lunch.  I am obsessed.

On the house reef I found a cute little blue nudi that was soooo tiny.  Pirjo knew immediately… the Doris pectin.

The night dive was on fire again.  We found a lot of nudis, but I am not sure how many of them are new.  We also saw two flatworms aggressively penis fencing!  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn3xluIRh1Y

Keeping ‘em coming…

155. Reticulidia fungia

156. Phyllidia babai

157. Phyllidiella annulata

158. Phyllidia coelestis

159. Doris pectin

160. Unidentia sandramillenae

161. Trapania aurata

162. Melibe sp. 1

163. Plocamopherus sp. 2

164. Facelinid sp. 2

165. Platydoris inframaculata

BuBu You're My Boo

I got up before the call to prayer at 3:45am.  We chatted about that and it is interesting.  Why do they need to project this throughout the villages?  Why can’t they just do it within their mosque.  I wonder why they do this.  It would never be allowed in France or the US.

Today we went to Pool Party and Apuri Bay.  They were both so beautiful and we also found a good amount of nudis.  More at Apuri Bay than Pool Party.  

We were laughing that it is not Poo Party.  But that we would see Boo Boos down below, which are these bamboo cages where the fish swim in and cannot get back out.  Rhome said that Boo Boos are also dresses that women wear around the house in Paris.  Oh, we call them Moo Moos.  But when someone has a scratch, that’s a Boo Boo.  Oh man.  Now my head hurts.

I talked to Rhome about this and there are all different spellings:

• BuBu = Fish Trap

• BouBou = African dress

• BoBo = Owie in French

• Boo Boo = Owie in English

• Your Boo = Significant other

• Boo! = Scary Ghost says…

• Bout = Then End in French (and the end of this paragraph)

We lost power for a bit, but they have a generator so everything still worked but the air con.

I keep thinking that I need to do a lifecycle of the nudibrancher…

o Being told what a nudibranch is

o Spotting one on your own for the first time

o Taking a picture of one for the first time

o Spotting things that look like nudibranchs but aren’t (sea cucumbers, flatworms, blobby things, etc)

o Looking for nudibranchs on land by accident

o Taking beauty shots of the nudibranch

o Upgrading your camera to take a better picture, that point and shoot sucks!

o Finding out there are others who also like nudibranchs

o Planning all your dive travel around finding nudibranchs

o Counting distinct Nudibranch species on each dive trip

o Going on group Citizen Science trips where all the group is doing is finding, photographing and identifying nudibranchs

o Buying articles of clothing with nudibranchs on them

o Knowing all the scientific names

o Learning that the second name should always start with a lowercase

o Learning that the names ending in “i” are named after a male, “ae” are named after a female

o Being frustrated that the scientific names keep changing

o Getting to know some of the Scientific Experts who name new nudis

o Reading the Scientific Papers about new nudis

o Getting to know people who nudis are named after

o Wanting to get a nudi named after yourself

o Arguing a nudibranch species at Nudi Council

o Creating a talk about nudibranchs to present at your local dive club

o Posting nudibranch ID questions to NudiBase or Nudibranch Central on Facebook

o Getting mask lens changed so underwater vision is better

o Getting a tattoo of a nudibranch

o Taking so many pictures your trigger hand hurts from carrying the camera

o After so many years, being unsure if you should upgrade your camera again

o Graduating to Blackwater or hanging up your dive fins

As I think about it… maybe these are the chapters to my memoir - coming out someday (or never).

My lens cap is no longer holding to the port.  I thought this day might come.  I need to figure out if I can buy just a new cap.

Moving right along…

138. Ceratosoma gracillimum

139. Thecacera pacifica

140. Elysia sp. 15

141. Janolus sp. 1

142. Philine orca

143. Dermatobranchus tuberculatus

144. Goniobranchus hintuanensis

145. Dermatobranchus sp. 18

146. Phyllidiopsis krempfi

147. Goniobranchus kuniei

148. Glossodoris cincta

149. Marionia sp. 9

150. Tenellia sp. 29

151. Goniobranchus collingwoodi

152. Glossodoris atromarginata

153. Nembrotha milleri

154. Marionia rubra

Snoopy Slug

 Today is the day of the Krampus.  I slept in a bit and had some breathing room in my nudi work.

We went back to the Jetty because Lisa has tried three times to go but it hasn’t worked out.  She didn’t make it this time either since she overslept.  So sad.

As I was getting ready I noticed that my histogram was on in the display.  I hate that.  I couldn’t get it to disappear so I just mentioned it to Francis.  He said to try the info button.  OMG.  That totally worked.  I have used the same settings for so long it is like I have forgotten everything else about my camera.

At the Jetty we saw mating Jorunna rubescens.  And also a cool rare Nembrotha.

At Black Rhino we saw a Trapania naeve (white with black spots).  It looks like Snoopy to me.

A huge thunderstorm rolled in as we were headed back.  I got up to grab my towel and totally fell back behind the captain.  Doh.  It’s been a long time since I’ve fallen.  I feel fine though.  Just a bruised ego.

I tried a new thing where I stayed in my bathing suit and skin in between the afternoon dive and the night dive.  I just sat on my porch and read a book. Really it isn’t different from a surface interval on the boat.

I almost lost a connector to my strobe on the night dive.  Luckily it stayed connected to the housing, but it completely became unscrewed from strobe.  I didn’t even remember that was how it was connected.  I am so glad I caught it.

The bugs were so bad at dinner.  I’m not sure why.  They haven’t been bad any other night so far.

Slugs

125. Elysia sp. 37

126. Hypselodoris nigrostriata

127. Nembrotha livingstonei

128. Flabellina exoptata

129. Hypselodoris paradisa

130. Trapania naeva

Doesn't this guy look like Snoopy?

131. Diversidoris crocea

132. Thuridilla gracilis

133. Gymnodoris citrina

134. Phestilla lugubris

135. Cadlinella ornatissima

136. Aegires sp. 3

137. Platydoris sanguinea