24 Jan 2020
Last day of diving, and a short day at that so the boat had time to get back to Sorong and so we had 24 hours of off-gas before flying home.
Dive #35 – Friwinbonda – Dampier Strait
(for the record, I did every single dive!)
Saw this jelly as soon as I got in the water!
The water here was rather murky as well, and there was a decent current
Nembrotha chamberlaini, blowing in the current:
Another one of those funky Pikachu nudibranchs:
This is a sea hare- he has a hitch-hiker…
Hitch-hiker crab:
Longfin spadefish:
Earwig of the sea (probably not his technical name):
Wobbegong!!!
Love that face!
Coryphellina exoptata:
Pipefish!
Goniobranchus reticulatus – Reticulated Chromodoris:
Jellyfish!!!
There were so many of these guys floating at the surface!
I did the longest safety stop ever just so I could photograph them!
It’s hard to see with all the speckles in the water, but this jelly looked bumpy…
I did not touch him to find out
Pelagic tunicates- I usually see these guys on night dives:
Another comb jelly:
Look at those tentacles!
Another bumpy guy:
(I wish I knew my jellies better)
This guy has a couple salps on him (not sure if they’re hitching a ride, or if he caught them):
After our dives, we took a trip to one of the island villages:
Look at that beautiful water!
This is where the boats usually dock, but the tide was out.
I have no idea how this house is still standing:
Fruit?
New building, in progress:
There’s a program called “Goggles for kids” that my boat participates in- they hand out goggles to kids to get them excited about the world underwater and invested in protecting the oceans:
They also handed out school supplies:
This is my kind of house- look at all those plants!!!
Paradise
Walking along the beach:
This coconut has sprouted a tree!
Wind “chime” made from plastics that washed up on the beach:
Chris and Josef taking selfies on the beach:
<3
Rope swings!!!
This family asked if I would take a picture with them, so I got one on my camera too!
And back to the boat we go:
As a treat for our last day, the crew of the Amira unfurled her sails!
This is the Amira!
My group! Eddy (the driver of our panga all trip), Me, Steve and Kelly (not pictured, Morris, who was taking this picture)
And this is our group!
Our crew!
Us and our crew!
Bill, Nora and Burt- Nora was our amazing cruise director, who drew detailed maps, gave great briefings and worked her magic to get us into some incredible sites. I knew of Bill and Burt from dive books I’ve read and through working on underwater photography, so to meet them in person was a pretty cool experience (plus, they were both great at identifying fish from my incredibly vague descriptions!)
One last meal together:
And the sun sets on an amazing trip- I’m officially hooked on liveaboards and can’t wait for my next one!
