Ulong Channel awaits

To our surprise, this morning was designated for Jellyfish Lake.  We actually thought that would happen tomorrow.  What that meant was while the rest of the group went to Jellyfish, the four of us stayed on board the ship.  Matt and I worked on dive logs, and Wayne and Jodi went kayaking.  I also managed to go through all of the blogs and correct the dates, order of publication, and order of photos. All that is left in the blog section is to update the blog associated with our most recent Kona Aggressor trip.  I’m about four days into the seven day trip.  We shall see how that goes!  The ship actually began moving to our current mooring site at about six am, give or take a few minutes.  The ride was pleasant, and uneventful.

The Jellyfish group returned after 9 am, and breakfast commenced.  We had a slightly later start for dive one than usual, but not too bad.  We started off to my favorite location, Ulong Channel, but the mooring balls were pretty much tied up with over ten boats.  Off we went to Siaes Tunnel, another favorite location.  Upon our entry into the tunnel, I looked down, and the schooling jack population seems to have increased significantly.  We exited to the right and went down a wee bit, but the current shifted, and we turned around.

I have discovered I prefer being in the back of the dive formation.  I am much more subject to collisions when in the front.  It’s true that I am a fairly large target for hitting.  It’s just not that much fun!

The reef was bright, colorful, and full of life.  Visibility was a bit short today, but it was bright, and the water blue and lovely.  I always enjoy this site.

We came back to cashew chicken, fish bread (sort of like beef wellington, but fish), calamari, and salad.  Lots and lots of water as well.  I have not been this well hydrated in a long time.  I think I didn’t take in as much water in during our Kona Aggressor trip, but I think that is because it was so cold!  

The dive schedule for the day has changed, probably due to population of dive sites, and the adjusted schedule is Ulong Channel, followed by Ulong Sandbar, and the Ulong Wall for our dinner dive.  This is looking to be a promising day.  :)  

Ulong Channel was a bit more mixed up than expected.  We entered near the mouth of the channel, close to where we typically hook up to watch the sharks swim by.  Unfortunately, there was no current, so we went up to the surface and were dropped off at what is normally our exit site.  We descended right above a grove of garden eels (I really don’t know what to call the whole shebang), to which I directed Valerie, who was quite excited.  We proceeded to swim down the channel, as there was no current whatsoever, moving along the direction towards the lettuce coral.  Along the way we ran into anemone fish, a turtle, and other favorite sea critters, to include to chevron barracuda overhead.  We made it to a second patch of garden eels, and photographed them, and then made it to the lettuce coral.  With no current, all the soldier fish were out and about, awaiting marching orders.  From there it was through a grotto of groupers and territorial titan triggerfish (who loved Valerie’s fins rather than mine or Matt’s), with swim bys from a shark who had lost her dorsal fin.  Poor baby.  Both Ken and Eddie say it is from rough sex.  I think the ladies get the poor end of that deal.  Lose a limb and have to birth a child.  Hmmm.

Dive three commenced after a decent break.  The Sandbar is a relatively easy dive, a gentle slope going down to the bottom of the sandbar.  I asked if the green and yellow leaf scorpionfish were still there, and to my surprise, they were.  With four others!  There are now three yellow, one green, one purple, and one pink leaf scorpionfish.  And four were out!  There was also a strange slug I have not seen before (will have to look that up), a school of jacks, bonito tuna, a juvenile barramundi, a huge school of bigeyes, and at the end, there was a blackside hawkfish just voguing for Wayne.  Every few seconds, the hawkfish would turn its head to look at Wayne, and since Wayne was still there, it would continue to pose.  The only bad part of the dive was the thermal cline through which we swam multiple times.  79 degrees.  Cold.

We left for the night dive at Ulong Wall at 7:15 pm.  It was a slow boat ride out as the tide was out, and the beacon from the sand bar was not working (too much bird poop, said Eddie).  We made it out, and agreed to a 45 minute dive.

Let me tell you that at this point in the trip I am tired.  I get to sleep about 30-60 minutes later than Wayne does, work the blog, get up realtively at the same time, and don’t take naps.  I’m tired.  SO I begged for a shorter dive.

Turns out I shouldn’t have.  This was, for me, by far, the best night dive of the trip.  The water was like warm bathwater, although a little bit salty.  We found a juvenile snapper in the middle of staghorn coral, multiple sets of anemone fish, cute dog faced pufferfish sleeping in the middle of tables of coral (so cute, can I take one home??), and a beautiful green giant clam.  I was almost sorry to get up at 45 minutes, but the emphasis is on almost.  I was having a little trouble equalizing my left ear at the start of the dive, so I need to tread cautiously.  By the time we made it back and I came down for dinner, I was exhausted.  I didn’t finish the blog or log my dives, but went upstairs at 9:45, and had lights out in about a half an hour, shortly after Wayne dropped his iPad for fifth time…So, as you may guess, this is being written the following morning.

On the downward slope

May 26, 2015

Yesterday was the precise middle of our liveaboard trip.  It’s a sad feeling knowing that there are only 13 dives left to the trip when you wake up.  And that number dwindles as each minute passes.  Add to that, Palau is in our top two dive locations in the world, and the only one that is still accessible to divers.

There was a lovely rainstorm last night that woke us up at about 3 am today.  It was slightly distressing to know that our swim suits would be wet again, but a fresh water rinse is always a good thing!  Even our BCs got the treatment.

This morning’s pre-breakfast dive was at Blue Corner.  Once again, it was completely different than the other two.  We had a very short swim to the hook in site, but the current was yet again changing.  We didn’t see much pelagic life at the hook in today, but that’s ok.  We unhooked and then swam through the middle of the corner.  There were quite a few white tips, a decent number of eels, and schools upon schools of jacks, barracuda, and snappers.  One of our fellow divers chased an eel into another hole (actually several other holes), so I positioned myself at the rock which I figured would be the final destination and waited.  Sure enough, the eel went into the hole, and the chasing diver pulled into braking mode as he almost ran into me.  I watched him go chase a Napoleon wrasse, and then I peered into the crevice.  There was the eel, getting cleaned - by a pipefish!  Good things come to photographers who wait.

We also got to see a school of bumphead parrotfish (it looked like mom, dad and kids out for a breakfast trip) after we made it across the corner.  I peered out over the edge, and saw more sharks.  And the Napoleon followed us across.  It was time for our safety stop far too soon.  Ah well, farewell Blue Corner for this trip.

Breakfast was served and eaten with gusto, and then we got ready for dive number two, at Turtle Cove.  The entry into Turtle Cove is fun, you do a backwards roll in, swim over the reef, and enter through a hole at the top of the reef.  You descend down to about sixty feet, and there is an entry into the blue.  At the bottom of the entryway is a plaque.  When we were here with Don and Lori many, many years ago (ok, maybe 2008), we were out on the water when there was an incident on another dive boat.  A Korean father and son were diving, the father became non-responsive, and sank to the bottom of reef, which is quite a ways down.  There was a manhunt staged by local authorities, supported by the dive operations.  No one ever found the father, but his BCD (buoyancy compensator device, which holds the tanks and keeps a diver floating) was found closer to Peleliu.  There were big bites taken out of the BCD, and tiger sharks had been seen earlier in the area.  No one knows what happened, no one probably will, but his son put up the plaque in his father’s memory.

Anyway, our dive was not that dramatic.  After entering through the top of the reef, we came out and hung out near the back.  We saw another ghost pipefish, square spot anthias, purple queens, purple anthias, blue and yellow fusiliers, pyramid butterflyfish, two eels, and the obligatory turtle at the top of the reef.  Of course there was a lot more, but the colors are so vibrant, and the fish so prolific, that it’s hard to put it all on one page.  The dive itself was an extremely gentle drift dive, a rare occurrence, as there is usually no current at Turtle Cove.  At least not while we were there.  When we got on the boat, Ken was conducting repairs.  Apparently a nut/bolt set for the steering column has gone faulty, so we were on the surface for over a half an hour before taking off for the Ocean Hunter III.  A chance to dry off and relax while under a canopy.

Lunch was of an Italian theme.  There was salad nicoise, pasta and meat sauce, fish fingers (although not quite sure how that is Italian), focaccia bread, and fresh fruit.  Blessedly, there is always fresh fruit!

We had a decent break between dives, so I worked on cleaning up the blog, which will be completely republished after we return to Hawaii, and got quite far.  The photos are now in chronological order, and I have identified the missing albums and blog pages.  Hopefully, those still exist online, and I can at least copy paste the one missing trip.  It’s a lot of work to maintain this website, and when I switched over programs there were (and still are) a few glitches.  Nothing I can’t handle, though.

Dive number three was Barnum’s Wall, which is normally quite breathtaking - vibrant colors and tons of fish life.  Unfortunately, we did not get the tide right, so the view was not quite as breathtaking as normal.  Still, we saw batfish, blue and yellow fusilier, more purple anthias and queens, anemone fish, and stunning fan corals in the colorful coral formations.  This was another drift dive, and gentle again.  It is dificult to predict how the currents are going to be, and where they will take you.  At least as a lay person.  Luckily our guides know the ropes.

We had a moderately quick turn around to go out on dive four, and headed to Clarence Wall (which I last dove as Dexter’s wall, with Dexter leading).  The moment we descended, there were two turtles, one green sea, the other hawksbill, that were taking off in opposite directions.  I saw yet another two turtles before our guide pointed out the first one.  All in all, we saw so many turtles, that I believed that there was just one leap frogging around (while we were looking for the unfound frogfish).  Of course, at the end, the turtles proved my suspicions wrong.  Three of them showed up and swam around while we were on our safety stop.  During the course of the dive there was a feeding anemone with skunk anemone fish, several very angry titan triggerfish, a barramundi, and we were led by a batfish that appeared to be in search of a turtle.  Of course, when the opportunity to follow a turtle showed up, the batfish decided it wasn’t interested.  Nor were any of its two other buddies.  One of the turtles we saw had a remora on it, which then separated and swam around freely.  We also saw a white tip reef shark overhead, and I saw a grey reef shark swimming below us during our safety stop.  Pretty decent dive.  On the way back we had a few treats - a pod of dolphins (perhaps two or three) came by to swim in the Poseidon’s wake, and to entertain us.  Entertaining it was!  And we were treated to a magnificent sunset as we returned to our home base.

We had a one hour turn around for the night dive, which was at Big Drop Off.  There were only three of us diving, so it was quiet and mostly without kicks to the head.  I was about startled out of my skin near the beginning of the dive when a crocodile scorpionfish came hurtling down the reef.  It looked like it meant business, so I moved out of its way, and didn’t get my camera out on time.  We also saw some sleeping parrotfish (yes, they do have sacs, answering my own question from the other night), a sleeping turtle, an eel, a notodoris serenae, and a host of unseen critters out in the deep during the night.  My mask has still not quite reconformed to my face, it will take a few more days/dives, I think.  But it will happen.  It took more than a few dives for it to reshape the last time, so I know it will eventually happen.  I think we started off and ended the dive seeing a pleurobranch in various stages (sleeping and active), but I’ll need to do a little hunting to figure it out.  Or just ask Eddie, who pointed them out.

We returned a little before 9pm, and the other divers on board had just finished their dinner.  Typically it is served at 9 pm for all, but it made sense to feed the larger group before we got back.  The Italian theme continued this evening.  There was minestrone soup, salad, garlic bread, lasagna, a pumpkin frittatta, and green beans.  The ship quartermaster had brought in some Red Rooster beer, so we were happy to be drinking the local beer.  Dessert was a magnificent blueberry bread pudding, if that can be considered Italian.  I could only finish half of mine, and Wayne could only manage his.  

As Wayne says, the only problem with this trip is the food, it’s terrible, and there’s too little of it.  Ha!  Arlee feeds us well.

Methinks it is time for bed.  The majority of the group is headed to jellyfish lake in the morning.  We opted out, as we have already been there five times!

You know it's going to be a good day when...

Dolphins greet you at Blue Corner for your first dive of the day!

I slept in until 5:30 this morning, grimaced when looking at my very curly hair in the mirror, brushed my teeth and headed downstairs where Wayne was engaged in discourse.  He had the computer downstairs and was logging his dives.  Once I arrived, he sat down and finished his logs so that I could take care of mine.  We began to get ready for the dives, and headed out.

When we arrived, we were greated by dolphins playing in the wake of the boat.  Great way to start the dive!  This time, we dropped in very close to our hook in site.  Instead of 25 minutes swimming in the current, it was only five.  We hooked in and the show started!  At first there was a hammerhead shark just under the ledge trying to get up, but the jacks quickly shooed it away.  We saw dogtooth snappers, jacks, yellowfin barracuda, tons of triggerfish, Napoleon wrasse, bumphead parrotfish, the works.  The Napoleons swam so close to us, we could touch them.  The current was perfect, and we were suspended behind our hooks, held basically motionless in the water.  I could tell the moment the current changed, I floated straight up over my reef hook.  I looked to Eddie, and he motioned to unhook.  I’m getting good at this.  We then swam into the channel area, surrounded still by jacks and barracuda, and followed by the Napoleons.  I really enjoyed the dive, our best at Blue Corner this trip… ;)

Breakfast was large, as we were headed for two tanks to Peleliu, with no return trip until after both were complete.  

We piled onto the skiff to make the long (hah!) trip over to Peleliu.  Typically, from a land based dive operation, the ride to Peleliu is anywhere from 75 minutes to 90, depending upon the seas.  Today our trip was about 25 minutes.  I think I’m really being converted over to liveaboard operations in Palau.

We were first supposed to do Peleliu Expressway, hitting the jet stream running.  But the current was going the wrong way, so we did Peleliu Cut instead.  This time, we did not hit the same problems as last time, and we made it all the way down to the cut to hook in.  This is the same location where Wayne lost his D9 to the Pacific Ocean two years ago.  We descended, swam away from the wall, and drifted down to the cut, and hooked in.  There was a green sea turtle there as we hooked in, he took off after we arrived.  There was a huge show from dogtooth tuna and jacks by the dozens, but very few sharks.  Quite different from this morning.  There was some action between three small jacks and a titan triggerfish, the jacks were trying to move him out of their territory, but the titan was staking his claim.  After about a half an hour, we unhooked and drifted past the cut to the far side of Peleliu.  As I looked down, I saw where the pelagic action was - down below 100 feet.  The jacks were HUGE (as big as I am!), as were the sharks. We continued to fly across the site where Wayne’s dive computer is now probably encrusted in coral, having fun chasing blue tang and other fish along the way for photo opportunities. At the end of the dive, on our way to our safety stop, a huge ray (will have to figure out what type) passed below us.

Our break between dives was in our typical location, but boy had it changed!  It no longer consisted of simply a bathroom, shower, picnic tables, and a covered area.  The covered area now had a second floor, there was a bai, and a newly constructed home built for when the Emperor and Empress of Japan came to Peleliu to commemmorate the invasions.  It appears locked up and unused now.  That’s too bad, because it could be a small museum, or a “get to know Peleiu” information area to attract divers to come back and stay a while.

The second dive went as planned, Peleliu Coral Gardens (aka Orange Beach).  We rolled out, and descended into what could pass as a World War II demolition yard.  There is ordnance, there are guns, and metal frames belonging to who knows what.  The Marines invaded Orange Beach on September 15, 1944, and they were pinned down for 8 hours before breaching the beach.  We got to spread apart and look around for “things,” so Wayne and I strayed away from the main group.  I found a big giant clam, and got a picture of Wayne behind it.  This was Wayne’s 200th dive in Palau!  My 150th was the previous dive at Peleliu Cut.  Unfortunately, sometime after this photo, my sunscreen melted into my eyes, and my sinuses filled up completely.  The rest of the dive was not terribly pleasant physically, although the surrounding area is beautiful and colorful.  It’s an area of Peleliu that was not hit hard by Typhoon Bopha, blessedly.  It’s nice to have some place to dive on Peleliu so you can get to appreciate another state within the Republic of Palau.

Arlee had a magnificent Mediterranean lunch prepared for us, fish and chicken shish kebabs, tabouleh, all sorts of yummy sauces, raw veggies, and hummus.  This was accompanied by big glasses of water, and silence in the dining area.  Either everyone was starving, everyone was tired, the food was too delicious to talk, or all of the above!  I vote for choice number four.

The fourth dive commenced at 5:30, giving us a decent 2/12 hour interval to rest, and me to put drops in and wash cloths over my eyes, and get dry.  I’m going to have to slather a pound of moisturizer on my body when this dive trip is over!  And get a spa trip as well.

Our twilight dive was at Ngedebus Dropoff/Corner.  The wall headed to the left was decimated during Typhoon Bopha, and needs to heal.  Instead, we dove the corner, which was still a pretty decent wall dive.  We got in at the dropoff, and the light was already fading.  Immediately below us was a large ray, type I do not know.  Even with eye drops and rest, my eyes were blurry, so seeing little things was still problematic.  Ogie pointed out robust ghost pipefish (which I couldn’t see until Wayne pointed them out), and Matt a black nudibranch (which I couldn’t see at all!).  We did see a lot of fish life, including an Emperor Angelfish, whose purple stripes just seemed to glow.  Amazing.  Also there were two eels that I got to see.  Unfortunately, the second one scooted before I got there.  There is an art to photographing eels, which a lot of people don’t know.  I may wind up putting together a PADI distinctive specialty for that…There were also two lovely tiger cowries backed into the reef, hopefully safe from octopus, and a small lion fish.

We returned to a Mediterranean dinner - couscous, lamb stew, cauliflower, and eggplant moussaka.  Dessert was vanilla ice cream over pears covered in chocolate syrup.  The dining room was mostly quiet, and emptied quickly.  I think we were all glad that there was not going to be another dive tonight.  

Tomorrow is our last day in the Ngedebus area, and then we are off again, headed towards Ulong Channel.  I cannot believe that we are done with four days of diving already.  It just seems unfair!  The dives, the food, the company, and the lodging have been exquisite.  If only I had a cat!

Blue Sunday

First good night of sleep since spraining the ankle a little over two weeks ago— no pain!  I cannot tell how much good the diving has been on my ankle.  It almost looks like a real ankle!  We were up at 4:30, and went on deck topside at about 5, where we ran into Jodi.  The sunrise was spectacular, so had to take a couple of pictures.  Then we did the typical dive logging and photo loading, and I finished the blog outline for yesterday.  I’ll fill it in today, since I have all the pertinent data.

First dive today was at Blue Corner.  The water was like glass going out, so we anticipated great things.  We got to the mooring by 7:30 after a return to the boat to retrieve Valerie’s computer.  We did a deep water live entry, and descended, swimming towards the reef.  Unfortunately, the current had shifted, and we were swimming into it.  We cut across the corner into some significant current.  The fish life was magnificent, but we needed to keep moving to get to the hook in site.  :(  Sharks and jacks and wrasses passed in front of us and over us.  We also saw a pair of turtles - both fairly decent size - but no time for photos.

When we got to the hook in site 25 minutes later, the fish life was not quite as predator filled as we expected. Still, there was a lot going on in the current, and it was enjoyable.  I tested out yet another mask, and this one worked better than the others (Wayne is making up a check list so that we remember to travel with four masks rather than just one).  The drift back to the boat went far too quickly for my liking.  We had a Napoleon wrasse approaching us from above, grey reef sharks swimming right across our path, a baby hawksbill turtle, two eels, hordes of yellowfin barracuda and silver jacks, and anemone fish.  We did our safety stop at the top of the reef, and the Poseidon (skiff to the Ocean Hunter III) was right above us.  Magnificent morning dive, and tons of calories burned!

Breakfast was the typical buffet, but I think many of us spent more time talking about the first dive rather than focusing on breakfast.  We all ate well, though!

Dive two was one of my least favorite spots in Palau - Virgin Blue Hole.  It’s called that because unlike the other diving holes in Palau, there is only one way in and one way out.  The other holes have multiple entry/exit areas, and are more filled with light.  I descended slowly to 100 feet, and started to prepare for exiting, but our dive guide kept us in the hole for at least 10 minutes, if not more, focusing on lines coming down from the ceiling.  I didn’t have a light, the cave was dark, and the lines reminded me of something macabre.  For the first few minutes I thought “Wayne’s next to me.  I’m ok.”  After five minutes, I wasn’t, and I knew I was narced. 

I hate nitrogen narcosis, especially the panic type.  I signalled Wayne that I was narced, and I headed to the exit.  It was silly to narc, because I knew how to get out, but it still happened.  I got out into the sunlight and started to ascend slowly.  Wayne followed.  When we made it to 60 feet, I was ok.  During the rest of the dive, we saw a porcupine pufferfish, fire dartfish, wire coral gobies, a turtle with three legs, another with all four, and a crocodile scorpionfish.  The boat came to get us after ascent, and we got on.  During the ride home, we passed by a school of batfish.  It’s apparently spawning season.  ;)

Today is American theme for our meals.  I went out on the deck to hang up my wet swimsuit and smelled hamburgers.  I came down and asked our chef, Arlee, if it was American day, and he said it was.  We had burgers, chicken wings, a carrot/cabbage cole slaw, potato salad, corn on the cob, and chips.  Plus fruit!  Arlee spoiled the surprise - tonight is pork ribs.  Poor Wayne.

Dive three was Blue Holes.  I was correct in my assessment that my narcing is brought on by darkness and depth.  It was a great dive, going in from one of the top holes, descending to the bottom, checking around the cave, and then back up and out the window, hooking left toward Blue Corner.  Inside the cavern, we saw robust ghost pipefish, a clown triggerfish with a baby, and the ubiquitous disco clams (cue the Bee Gees, please).  Headed out of the window to the left, we saw a shark whose right pectoral fin was gone.  Poor baby was swimming lopsided.  The current shifted on us, so we turned away from the corner.  There was a baby baramundi, a huge carpet anemone, and the two-toned dartfish.  And as we were on our safety stop, I became a human cleaning station.  I was tickled by cleaner wrasse.

Then back to the ship, where we were greated with cocoa and brownies, and a one hour break before starting our next diving adventure.

Our fourth dive had only five takers, and we went to Ngemelis Coral Gardens.

It was a lovely, slow drift dive, although I was really getting cold.  We saw several dogface pufferfish, star pufferfish getting cleaned, along with a stripebelly pufferfish.  We saw several healthy hawksbill turtles, a Napoleon wrasse upon descent, and a HUGE bumphead parrotfish.  Down almost an hour, I was freezing, begged for a safety stop. Ogie looked at me, “Like, really? Now?”  And I nodded vigorously.  We exited at the hour mark. During the safety stop we saw a trio of titan triggerfish, causing me to duck behind Wayne.  I just don’t have a good history with titans… And then it was off to the Ocean Hunter III.

We had an hour and a quarter for turnaround before the night dive, and I asked Eddie if there were something dry I could wear to keep me from freezing.  Blessedly, they had a shortie that fit me.  So at 7:15, another five were off to Ngemelis Wall.

If you feel the urge to submerge, contact Captain Ken

A much, much better night of sleep.  There’s something about sleeping on the water.  Mind you, my ankle ached sharply through the night, but it was still so much better sleep than previously.  Something about being on a boat just soothes.  And my leg and ankle reduced significantly in swelling overnight.  I guess it was like having a two hour epsom salt soak.

The boat left Malakal for Ngemelis this morning at 4:30.  I felt us start and move, and woke up briefly, but the rocking of the boat, and Wayne’s deep breathing, were calming enough for me to return to slumber until 6 am.  Nice rest.  We went downstairs with the items I needed downstairs for the day in a backpack to save me unnecessary trips up and down the stairs.  There were some rolls, fresh espresso, water, and Matt was down here logging information from the day prior.  While we were snacking a little, I replaced the battery on my backup dive computer.  Successful surgery, BUD is as good as new.

Half an hour later, Eddie made the good morning divers announcement, so I wrapped up finishing yesterday’s blog before starting this one.  I was hoping to finish up reconstructing the Kona Aggressor blog from January this morning, but that is not to be.  It’s like there’s never enough time on this trip unless you skip a dive, and we’ve only just started.  Jodi came in and joined us before it was time to head to German Channel.  The question was whether or not we would maintain our streak that started the last time we came here with Matt and Jodi?

The answer is yes!  Manta ray!!!  It was magnificent- gliding around us twice before disappearing in search of the bait ball.  Of course, there were grey reef sharks getting cleaned, lots of jacks, dogtooth snapper, goby shrimp, and a short fin spadefish.  Unfortunately, our friend the beaten up Napoleon wrasse was nowhere to be found.  I think he had seen better days.

Our breakfast (which is probably what will be all days) was a buffet filled with cheeses, eggs, toast and bagels, salami, a ton of fresh fruit, and BACON!  I was a happy girl!

Dive two was Big Drop Off.  We had a really moderate current, so it was pretty easy.  We saw two reef sharks, anemone fish, both many spotted and banded sweetlips, square spot anthia, and magnificent fan coral.  There was a school of purple anthia, with a few Randall’s anthias (I think).  We saw a hawksbill turtle with an extraordinarily clean shell, a TON of pyramid butterflyfish, and a notodoris minor with it’s egg sac.

After breakfast, it was off to New Drop Off.  The last 4 or 5 times we did this dive there was no current.  But we are close to the new moon, so the tides are starting to pick up the pace.  There was way, way more current than the last several times, it was akin to Mr. Toad’s wild ride.  There were schools of dogtooth snappers, lots of grey reef sharks swimming around and through us as we were hooked in, a green sea turtle, a group of 3 male Napoleon Wrasse with 1 female, bumphead parrotfish, chevron and yellowfin barracuda, fire dartfish, and a flounder that Jodi found.

Today’s meal theme is Japanese!  We had tempura shrimp, pumpkin & onion, sushi rolls, a vinegar/seaweed/cucumber salad, gyoza, shumai, and fruit.  I ate only half my plate and gave the rest to Wayne.  Very tasty lunch, but a short break between dives.  This is a heck of a schedule.

Dive four was at Turtle Wall.  There were only two green sea turtles there, and three of our cohorts were in way too close taking flash photos in the one poor baby’s face.  :(  We had a wonderful swimby from an eagle ray, saw a pair of batfish, several bumphead parrotfish, and my first two eels of the trip.  Last but not least, there was an anemone feeding with its anemone fish swimming fiercely above.

Our final dive, and my first night dive outside the lagoon, was at German Wall.  On a scale of one to five, I had to give it a zero.  We saw a sea cucumber hunting for dinner, star pufferfish, dogface pufferfish, plenty of sleeping parrotfish (which appear to sleep without a sac), a lone eel, tons of tiny lion fish, and several nudibranches.  My problem with dive was not what we saw, but with the loaner mask we got.  It was too small for my face and kept flooding.  As I cleared the mask, the air went into my hood, which was not venting properly.  That made me significantly more buoyant.  And without my camera to serve as an additional weight, it meant I kept floating upwards.  I finally pulled down the hood for the remainder of the dive, and started shivering about 3 minutes after doing so.  I will have to poke a hot nail through that hood several times so that it vents.  :(

Dinner was largely oriental fare.  We started with miso soup - yum!  Then we had udon noodles, snapper with a really spicy peanut demi sauce, Palauan style, bean sprout salad, a cabbage/carrot/cucumber salad, and edamame.  Wayne had dessert - bananas and vanilla ice cream with a caramel sauce.  It looked good, but the belly was full after half a plate.  Wayne had a plate and a half of food - the half was half of mine.  

It’s time to put a recharged battery into my flashlight.  And then to recharge me!