17 Apr 2023
I woke up at 3am, wide awake and ready to go!
Ok, so maybe it’s a bit too early to be awake, but I felt so much better having finally slept. Plus, I got to see this beautiful sunrise:
Most days, we’d be doing 3 dives, but tonight would be an especially long crossing so we’ll only have time for 2 dives today:
I went into this trip thinking it would be a lot like my Raja Ampat trip- where we were doing 4 dives a day and seeing so much beautiful sea life. I quickly learned that is not what this trip is about- this trip is more about exploring dive sites not frequently visited by other divers because they are so remote and far apart, which is cool, but leaves a lot of downtime as the boat motors to the next site. Here’s a map of where we’ll be diving:
I purposely didn’t bring my laptop because I didn’t think I’d have time to use it, but after this first day, I very much regretted not bringing it so I could get a jump on editing pictures… oh well, live and learn, I guess!
Dive #1 – Taman Niusnitu
Both of our dives today will be off the coast of this little island- Niusnitu:
Nora always draws such awesome maps for our briefings!
Dive briefing lounge:
I (finally) added a second strobe to my underwater setup! There’s definitely a bit of a learning curve in terms of positioning, and light still falls off after a few feet, so I can’t shoot far away fish (even though I kept trying), so this isn’t the greatest picture, but look! a Saddle butterflyfish!
I got super-excited when I spotted this white guy, thinking he’d be a nudibranch, but no, that’s a creepy worm sea cucumber! GROSS!
Bluegirdled angelfish:
Freckled hawkfish:
A whole school of Yellowstriped fairy basslets- these guys are so pretty! I spent most of this trip trying to get a good picture of them:
Little chromises hiding in a coral:
Fire dartfish!
I was so excited when I spotted this guy… then I found another, and another, and another and eventually they became so common I stopped photographing them.
Pennant coralfish
Blackfin slatey/sweetlips:
Regal angelfish:
Most fish here (and on this trip in general) were quite skittish- they definitely aren’t accustomed to divers, but for whatever reason, almost every time I tried to photograph one of these angelfish, it would turn and face me. Strange, and kind of annoying, but look at that face!
Freckled hawkfish:
Blueface angelfish:
aka, Yellowmask angelfish- seriously, who named these guys!?
A judgmental White-belly damselfish:
(whose belly is actually yellow, again, who named this guy!?)
A whole school of spadefish swam through! But they were too far away for me to hit with my strobe 🙁
First “nudi” of the trip- Pseudoceros laingensis, a purple-spotted flatworm:
Ugh, juvenile fish can be so frustrating to photograph; this young Razor wrasse was no exception:
The eye on this little Splitbanded cardinalfish really did glow like this!
I see you Slender grouper:
He tried really hard to hide, but I wanted his picture!
Another Pseudoceros laingensis (purple-spotted flatworm):
Redbreasted wrasse:
Bicolor cleaner wrasse:
Oh look, more chromis hiding in their coral:
A Blackspotted puffer, trying to hide:
he’s got the coolest eyebrows!
A rather worried-looking Bluegirdled angelfish:
Staghorn damselfish:
Sixbar wrasse:
Chevron butterflyfish:
After the 1st dive comes my favorite meal: big breakfast! We place our order before the first dive, during little breakfast, and when we get back to the boat, they bring a freshly prepared dish out for you!
Last trip, I tried all the offerings (noodle soup, mi gorang (which I love, but not for breakfast), eggs, omelets… probably a few others that I’m forgetting), but these pineapple pancakes are my favorite! I had them almost every day of the trip (except for one morning when I opted for banana and another when I tried them plain):
They’re more crepe-like than pancake-like, and I’m hoping to recreate them here at home.
Dive #2 – Nitu Boulders
Map by Nora Niggs
My group:
A giant clam!
This guy was a couple feet long
Some scaredy-damselfish hiding in the coral (I like their spiky dorsal fins):
Squat lobster! This guy is about the size of a nickel:
A pair of Pyramid butterflyfish:
So many tiny little cardinalfish!
And a Scalefin anthias:
Quakerfish:
This tiny crab is riding on a sea cucumber- he’s about the size of a dime:
Bubble coral shrimp!
I didn’t bring my close-up lens on today’s dives and regretted it- my camera is not good at macro on its own and there were a lot of cool little things I could have gotten much better pictures of had I brought it along. Will attach it to my setup for the rest of this trip’s dives.
Variegated lizardfish:
First nudi! a Phyllidiella pustulosa:
(and since I didn’t bring the close-up lens, some pretty corals to go with him)
First of many “is this a coral or a nudibranch?” pictures I brought back to ask our guides:
Answer: nudibranch! the back end of a Reticulidia fungia
Humphead bannerfish:
(I always mix this guy up with this next guy)
Pennant bannerfish:
Lionfish, not a great angle, but I like his eyebrows:
(and he’s native here, so no need to hate him)
Oh, look, another Regal angelfish looking at me…
Vanikoro sweeper:
Fire dartfish, surprisingly not close to his hidey-hole:
Cheese! A family of anemonefish:
Sometimes, they get a little territorial, especially if you’re trying to photograph something close to their anemone, and will nip at you!
Threespot dascyllus:
Panda butterflyfish:
Phyllidiella pustulosa:
Scalefin anthias:
Chinese demoiselle being cleaned by a little wrasse:
Just one arm from a sea star- hopefully that’s enough for him to regenerate?
Axilspot hogfish:
Little cardinalfish hiding in a coral:
Blackspotted puffer, in a coral bed:
Coral grouper:
Whitecheek surgeonfish:
Blackflap blennie:
Again, what awesome eyebrows!
Another nudibranch- Coryphellina (was Flabellina) expotata:
and another!
All in all, a decent first day of dives- I definitely need to work on lighting and bringing the close-up lens along will help with the macro shots.
Since I didn’t bring my laptop, I used an adapter to load all the pictures onto my phone as a back-up. It was a bit of a clunky process, but it worked. After I was done, I headed back to my room and found people in it…
Turns out, my roommate had locked the bathroom door, but it jammed and she couldn’t get out! She ended up opening the porthole and yelling until one of the kitchen crew heard her and got Nora (she’s the one photobombing this picture). I was totally oblivious to all of this, even though the camera room is just down the hall from our room- #WorstRoommateEver
They either couldn’t find the key or couldn’t unjam it, so they ended up basically prying the door open, then removing the latch strike so it wouldn’t get stuck again.
We decided to not lock the door and just use the “Do Not Disturb” tag for privacy… except that I wasn’t quite in the habit of checking for it and totally walked in on her later that evening. Poor Julia! But she was so easy-going and just rolled with it- such a great roommate, just stuck with me 🙁