Sept 21 2025
One last sunrise:
Michael declared today to be Becca Day- today’s dives are in a shallow reef, where we can hunt for nudis and fish and all sorts of cool critters! Basically, my kind of dive 🙂
We were treated to one last 3D dive briefing by Cedric:
Dive #28 – Pombo Boi
Today’s dive started on a sandy bottom, where there were a ton of juvenile fish, like this little sweetlips:
and this even smaller sweetlips!
Several spotted stingrays were cruising around:
and there were garden eels in the background:
Leaf scorpionfish are frequently in a not-so-great position to be photographed:
Scalefin anthias:
A whole forest of Garden eels!
and more stingrays:
You’d think I’d learn that my strobe can’t hit them from more than a few feet away, but I still keep trying.
The TINIEST! little Peacock razorfish!
He was about 1cm long.
Yellow boxfish:
Cratena simba:
TINY FROGFISH!!!
He’s about the size of my fingernail!
Absolutely adorable!
Pipefish:
Some sort of mantis shrimp hiding in his hole:
(his eyes are at 9 o’clock)
Leaf scorpionfish with a leaf 🙂
I thought I was just taking a picture of one orangutan crab, but there’s actually 2 of them plus a bubble coral shrimp!
Wire coral goby:
Phyllidia carlsonhoffi:
Two wire coral gobies!
Octopus hiding in a hole in the reef:
Nudibranch eggs (not laid by the nudi in the upper left corner):
Leaf scorpionfish!
Juvenile Six-line soapfish:
(it’s a bit hard to see in the picture- this guy didn’t want to stay still- but he’s also got the little chin appendage the big soapfishes have)
Dive #29 – Maulana Rocks
These little corals reminded me of broccoli:
Goniobranchus coi:
Two-stripe damselfish family:
Wire coral goby:
I spent all week trying to find these guys and today they are everywhere!
So many chromis!
Chromodoris dianae:
Sea star, on the move:
Chromodoris lochi:
and another!
Leaf scorpionfish!
Phyllidiella pustulosa:
he looks like a nose on that coral!
This little Chromodoris was upside down:
Little purple lobster with the long mustache:
Chromodoris lochi:
and another- turns out these guys are pretty common in this area
I spend a good chunk of this dive chasing that rainbow fish in the lower right corner:
There were actually a couple of them
I think they are Bluesided wrasses?
Super pretty fish!
There are 2 nudibranchs in this picture:
Salma bicolor #1:
Salma bicolor #2:
Nembrotha cristata:
Staghorn? chromis:
Humphead bannerfish:
Black-and-gold damselfish:
What an awesome way to end this trip- so many nudis!!! so many pretty fish!!!
And now, time to break down gear and hope it dries!
Motoring our way toward Ambon:
As we got closer, I was able to get some cell service and reconnect with the world (start sharing picture with our group, mainly)
Unfortunately, it started raining, again, here in Ambon:
But the (double) rainbow afterwards was nice:
and as it expanded, it made for some great photo-ops:
One last dinner with the group:
Before calling it an early night
Most of my gear is still wet, so I haven’t packed yet. The plan is to set my alarm for 4am to give myself enough time to shower, eat and finish packing before our 0515 departure time- my original flight wasn’t supposed to leave until the afternoon but, like my other domestic flights, this one also changed and now leaves at 7am.
Good night!