This morning we are anchored off Nusa Laut Island, which is northwest of the Banda Islands and very close to Ambon (where we flew to). After having breakfast someone from the crew spotted a whale so we sat around a few minutes and waited for it to get some more air.
Our first dive of the day was at a site called Akon. When we got dropped off we immediately swam down through a large arch and then started following a big wall. A couple of minutes into the dive our guide, Marcel, pointed out a blue spotted stingray that was resting at about 115 feet.
The rest of the dive was quite leisurely and we drifted along with a gentle current. Along the way we saw a ton of nudibranchs that were brilliantly colored.
Towards the end of the dive we rose to the top of the wall and up onto a coral shelf that was between ten and thirty feet deep and spent about 15 to 20 minutes wandering around up there looking at all the coral formations and small fish.
When we got back on the boat we had second breakfast and then waited for our second dive to come along. The second dive was at a spot called Amet and once we jumped in and went under there was a little bit of a current to take us along. The landscape/seascape was totally different from any of our other dives. There were various sizes of coral outcroppings surrounded by sand here and there.
It was really fun because you could find a lot of unique things hiding in the sand under the coral. Once again Marcel found a blue spotted stingray, but this time it was under some coral so it was harder to get a picture of.
As we were swimming around I had to constantly remind myself to look into open water because they told us there might be some larger fish that would swim by, but unfortunately none did. I did see a really nice bluefin trevally and when I went to take a picture of some Clark's anemonefish there was a lionfish under some coral right behind them.
When we came back to the boat we were taking our stuff off and cleaning it when a little fishing boat drifted into us and got their net caught on our boat. That provided several minutes of entertainment as the fishermen were shouting at each other in Indonesian.
When things had calmed down we headed upstairs for lunch and then we waited for our next dive. Our third dive of the day was at the same site as the second dive, but we took a slightly different route. Instead of taking the current the whole way we drifted for a bit then went shallower where the current was nonexistent and circled back towards where we started.
This time by some fluke I saw a ribbon eel and quickly got Uncle Allen's attention. I had really been hoping to see one of these, although I hoped it would be the blue variation, but beggars can't be choosers.
Later in the dive I was finally able to get a good picture of a clown triggerfish. The whole trip they have been keeping their distance, but for some reason this one came in fairly close. We also saw a Spanish mackerel out in the the open water.
When our dive was through we came back to the boat and ended up watching a DVD about muck diving, which is basically diving in silty or sandy areas where you might find really small animals, and a DVD about shark finning. Then it was time for us to get ready for our night dive. The dive started out slow, just shining our flashlights on a lot of silt and sand. About halfway through things got a little more interesting. We were around a coral head and someone saw a juvenile African pompano swimming around above us. They have a diamond shaped body with long streamer-like filaments coming off both their dorsal and anal fins. Unfortunately I couldn't get a very good picture of it.
Right after we saw the pompano our guide, Made, found an ornate ghost pipefish hanging out in some coral. Thank God he saw it otherwise I probably never would have seen one in my life. It was an incredible animal to see and amazing how well it blended in to its surroundings.
After that Uncle Allen found a big cuttlefish, which we ended up following around for a little while. When we got back to the boat it was time for dinner so we cleaned up and ate and then everyone kinda called it a night.
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