20 Sept 2025
Unfortunately, it’s time to start making our way back toward Ambon- today is our last full day of diving, so I’m trying to soak up these last few sunrises:
Today, we’re back at Soangi, home of my least favorite dive…
and we’ll be diving there at least twice:
hopefully my group will be up for trying the other site to break things up a bit.
And because the seas are much calmer than they were the last time we were here, we’ve been joined by a few other ships:
On the left is the White Manta, our sister ship, and on the right is the Dune Aurora, a wooden Phisini ship.
And this James Bond-looking ship is the Velocean:
a super-fancy aluminum yacht.
Dive #24 – Jackpot
I learned from last time that yes, this dive will start deep as we hang out at the pinnacle hoping hammerheads will come through, but we can’t stay there all dive- I just have to wait patiently until we move to the shallows where the pretty fish are!
(though I am having fun shooting back up toward the surface- I can’t do wide angle with my set-up, but this is a decent way to show large schools of fish)
A few lone sharks and a small school did come through, but again, my camera’s not really equipped for that.
Barred angelfish:
Pennant bannerfish:
Phyllidiella pustulosa:
Bignose unicornfish:
Terrible picture, but there were so many Redtooth triggerfish here!
Bumphead parrotfish:
Cuttlefish!
Thorunna australis:
Ugh, these flat spider-like crabs totally creep me out!
Juvenile Axilspot hogfish:
Creepy sea star hand regenerating:
Dinghy on its way to pick up other divers:
Dive #25 – Ping Pong
My group was on board with trying out a new site!
Twospined angelfish:
Striped large-eye bream:
I liked the way this Saddle grouper was popping out of his coral nook:
Munchy turtle:
and another turtle:
Orangutan crab:
Freckled? hawkfish:
Vagabond butterflyfish:
Bluefin trevally:
I spent all trip trying to get a decent shot of a Regal angelfish- usually they dart away the moment I spot them, but this one? It posed for me!
back and forth, it hung around for several picture!
Sea of chromis:
Sea krait!
Moray eel hiding under a coral ledge:
Dive #26 – Technically Ping Pong…
This dive was weird- we decided to go back to Ping Pong- I mean, it was a decent dive with decent fish life, but when we splashed, we were out in the blue.
We kicked forever to find a deep reef, then went back to the blue, then to a middle reef, then back to the blue again and finally ended at a shallow reef. Not sure what happened there.
My guide’s fins say, “If you can read this, you’re too close”
Fishes taking shelter under a coral ledge:
Turtle:
Spider crab?
Spotfin squirrelfish:
This turtle swam right under me:
Broom filefish:
Black durgon:
Pennant bannerfish:
Scrawled butterflyfish:
After lunch and our 3rd dive, we have a decent amount of downtime, which I usually use to either nap or start sorting through pictures, but today, I kept hearing some serious squawking- I peeked out of my room to find these frigatebirds:
Whale way off in the distance:
Dive #27 – Jackpot (sunset)
We headed back to the deep reef one last time to watch for sharks- we saw a few in the distance but they didn’t come close enough for pictures. In an effort to not to use my flash so as not to scare any hammerheads, I didn’t use my strobes, but I’m not very good at just sitting around waiting, so I shot my group instead 🙂
This is Mo:
Tom:
Phil:
Our guide, Rolly:
and Jo, cruise director in training:
(she joined our group for most of the trip- Mo gets cold quickly so when he was ready to go up, they’d buddy up and end the dive while we continued on)
I love the outline of these little guys!
One tasty looking tuna 🙂
As we started ascending, I noticed Phil was lagging behind. Jo went back to check on him- turns out he had gone into deco. When we did our initial briefing, they talked about deco and basically said if it happens, don’t hide it- just let us know and we’ll make sure you get up safely. We happened to have Cedric with our group this time too, so Rolly went down to hang with Phil and Jo, while the rest of us finished our safety stop. But none of us got out of the water until Phil had satisfied his deco and was at the surface as well. That was definitely a first for me!
The sun sets on another
Hoisting one of the dinghies:
Sometimes we tow them behind us, but at night, two get stored on the dive platform and one lives up on the sundeck.
Good night!