17 Sept 2025
Last night was rough- I was sick the whole night (things stay down, but not in) had to get up pretty much every hour and am once again very thankful for that bidet. My take on GI issues is better out than in- if I ate something that I shouldn’t have, as long as I can keep eating and stay hydrated, I’m just going to let it run its course. Today’s gonna be a toast and tea kind of day 🙁
But at least the sunrise was nice?
But, I’m determined to make it through all 3 dives today:
We backtracked north toward a cluster of islands:
My hiker app has a general world map- if I had internet (or thought to download this area ahead of time), those islands would have rendered much better but the blocky patches get the point across.
Interactive nautical map for our briefing:
Dive #13 – Tanjung Buton (drift)
Moorish idol:
Bennett’s butterflyfish:
Whitecheek surgeonfish:
A pair of Fire dartfish:
Normally groupers hide or perch on coral, but this guy is just hanging out in the open:
Flagtail grouper, properly perched:
A school of fusiliers:
Threespot dascyllus:
Solor boxfish:
Bumphead parrotfish from the front:
He desperately needs to brush his teeth!
Crescent-tail bigeyes:
Blacktip shark, being photobombed:
Spadefish:
Threespot angelfish:
Longnose butterflyfish:
Closest I was able to get to a Bumphead parrotfish and he would NOT come out of his cave 🙁
Bignose unicornfish:
Clown triggerfish:
Turtle #1:
he’s got a remora friend!
Turtle #2:
Dive #14 – Karang Hatta
Striped boxfish:
The most delicate little lionfish I’ve ever seen:
This Yellow boxfish was not interested in having his picture taken:
I was close enough to this turtle that my strobes should have lit him up, but nada… not sure what’s going on there 🙁
This Rockmover wrasse was seriously active! Made getting a good shot tricky, but I kinda like the derpy face he’s making here:
Soapfish:
Decently hidden scorpionfish:
Goatfish:
Um… Midnight snapper… what are you doing!?
Caloria indica:
and a whole pile of anthias!
Dive #15 – Tanjung Buton
My camera threw a memory card error, so no pictures 🙁 Unfortunately, fish seemed to know something was up and they didn’t swim off when I approached, I found my own starry night flatworm in water column and saw 13 bump heads at safety stop… bummer.
I didn’t change anything from the last dive, didn’t open the housing and it read just fine after when I took it out and popped it back in… hopefully it was just a fluke?
We have a relatively short ride over to the Banda Islands, where we’ll be anchoring tonight; I tried eating some dinner but am definitely not 100% yet, so goodnight Hatta Island!
