Sardine Run, Wild Coast, South Africa

The Sardine Run, Wild Coast, South Africa

We left new friends at the Blue Marlin Hotel and Crystal Divers and crossed over to Port St. John by van with a scuba gear and luggage trailer for the eleven and one quarter of us. It took about five hours through dry grass knolls and fields broken by Gum tree and Pine tree farming stations. Apparently the gum tree was brought over from Australia and really took hold to the point that it is now a weed used for heat, burning. Speaking of weed the area around Port St. John has a bit of a reputation for growing the stuff. I do have to say that it has a lot more uses than medicinal. The government burns down crops of weed every year but to no avail, it’s still prevalent. The night before we left the boys at Crystal Divers pulled a fast one on our dive guide/driver from Pro Dive South Africa and we had a really nice bon fire conversation and a night out on the town instead of early to bed.

After five hours we arrived at Port St. John’s River Lodge where our boat captain, Louie Van Aardt, was waiting to greet us and give us our pre-dive talk. Our trip was organized through www.prodivetravel.co.za based in Port Elizabeth a full day drive away. I was impressed with the river lodge, the rooms, cleanliness, family feel with kids playing everywhere, the food, and the boat waited for us at the end of the dock available for the fun to begin. It was too easy.

We were used to crashing through breakers to get out to dive sites but on this side of South Africa it was a little different. After everybody got personal gear sorted the first evening and got in the boat the next morning before 7 am, we were lucky or unlucky with the weather. It was clear skies, a mild swell, and the water was a little warm at 19 C. We toured up and down the coast looking for birds really, the first sign of the Sardine Run. They had begun showing up the day before we got there with Gannet, Storm Petrels, and a few Albatross gliding just above the swells without moving a wing. Where the birds went we went for a while and check out if a bait ball had formed, if so we were going to jump in and snorkel first rather than waste a tank of air on something that might break up after we got in the water.

Dolphins by the thousands are cruising this coastline right now and we had numerous opportunities to jump in and swim with them or get photos and film. It seemed better if you just stayed still rather than chase them; they come to you out of curiosity.

Below the dolphin we often found a shark trailing along because when the Dolphin circle the sardines into a ball doing all the work the sharks can swim through the ‘bait-ball’ as well and feed. Smart.

Not connected to the Sardine Run but equally impressive is the amount of Humpback whales migrating at the same time. Usually a little further out we would watch whales breaching and splashing around.

Louie mentioned that the juvenile whales were a lot more playful and approachable. On a day I missed due to the onset of an injury I couldn’t afford, the group got to dive with whales and get some great footage. If you’re interested in seeing some of this footage, I think www.stevewoodsphotography.commight do the trick. Two divers had massive cameras and the rest of us ranged from GoPros, Olympus, Canon, all in water housings.

I’m not one to sit around much but when book characters call out I usually have to reschedule activities around them. Once the characters are taken care of, I’m off exploring. While the group dived with whales the River Lodge arranged a guide to show me around some of the sites above water. My guide met me at the lodge and took a local truck taxi into town where a lot of people seem to gather during the day to sell fruit, vegetables, clothing etc. We walked up to the Jungle Monkey Backpackers. www.junglemonkey.co.za. It sits on a knoll overlooking ‘First’ Beach at the edge of town. Unfortunately their kitchen/bar/and music stage burned down recently but the dorm and the doubles are still available and the barbeque is up and running. My guide didn’t have a car so this was going to be a bit of an adventure without effort. One of the owners was willing to give us a lift out to a place called the ‘Gap’ and we could walk to the blowhole below it.

We got out, thanked him, and headed down to the blowhole. To get there is a bit of a climb including ladders and a safety cable hanging down the rock slope. The Gap and the blowhole are closer to ‘Second’ beach where I watched ‘Sin Sets’ of waves roll in without one surfer on them. I was told 8 or 9 people have been attacked by sharks here and so that keeps a lot of surfers out of the water even if those attacked were usually not surfing but swimming or spear fishing. The wind was right, blowing off shore holding up the waves and spraying over the tops in a rainbow. I watched Dolphin surf and play in the shallows as we sat waiting for the blowhole to do its thing. It wasn’t very active.

Once we got back up to the parking lot my guide finally got the drift that I wanted to go to the airstrip on the top of a plateau nearby. He figured the best possibility would be to go to Amapondo Backpackers Lodge and figure it out from there. We walked down a coastal single-track trail watching the waves the whole way. We found a few fishermen out on a point throwing their lines in. It’s best not to surf or swim when fishermen are fishing, they draw up everything including sharks.

On one of the rough days we came in from the sea early and did a quick look around and went to lunch at a place called Delicious Monster and the food and atmosphere were perfect for a place to eat basically outside. They do have a few rooms also. I had a seafood soup and crayfish and mussels. It was a really nice relaxing afternoon with the gang.

We found Amapondo Backpackers Lodge nearby and went in for tea and waited around for people to begin stirring. The backpackers had quite a few guests and it overlooks Second beach. The whole area of Port St John is loaded with hiking trails, some as long as five days and new ones being put in even longer. I spoke with the owner and he hooked us up with a guy who was off to collect wood from a Gum tree stand on my way. We hoped in and he drove us up to the airplane strip after dropping off his workers and chainsaws. He realized he could allow them to collect all the wood while giving me a lift back to my River Lodge and then he’d have a lighter day of it. Everybody was happy in the end.

We were all waiting for a cold front to blow in and cool the water but with the front come bigger swells and usually boat and wind spray. On big days we’d be wet pretty much from the get go. We did bring hot drinks in individual thermoses lunch. On such a day I could feel the beginning of a stiff back and had to opt out for the last couple days of boating. To be honest, it was okay with me because the River Lodge is in such a picturesque setting I could easily while away the hours writing and watching the waterfowl hunt on the riverbanks and I’d bask in the sun and take a break. I was expecting more diving than we did but the sights we all saw were also spectacular and worth it.

One rough day we came in a little early and we went up to the airstrip to catch the sunset and have a few beers. You literally have to look both ways when you get to the airstrip because there isn’t a tower or anything; you just drive on the strip and get to the end and out of the way in case of in coming. It was a beautiful sunset and we all returned to the Lodge for dinner.

There was a film crew staying at the lodge or using the restaurant and bar when the footy, ‘Rugby’ was on. There was a big party on their last night with all of us and they put a lamb on the spit and had quite the feed. These people know their business and it remains a lovely memory with a smile.

When it came time for everyone to scatter, many chose to go back to the Blue Marlin Hotel and get at least one more dive in if not two. Due to my mild injury and recognition of an up coming adventure trekking in Upper Dolpa out of Jumla I chose to carry on to the ‘Sak ‘n Pak Luxury Guest House in Ballito, Kwazulu Natal. www.saknpak.co.za. The room was awesome with a big bathroom, balcony over looking the ocean and a boardwalk up and down the coast. It’s a B&B so breakfast came with it and that too was great. The ladies running it are wonderful and willing to help get you situated. It’s a bit more posh in the Ballito area than the ‘wild coast’ of St. John or Durban. I did spend some time wandering the coastline before the sun went over the mountains. From the airport it’s about 20 minutes up the coast.

The Sardine Run never really came to fruition but the people I met and the shared dives were all worth it. They say the run is hit or miss and we may have been a little early but not from what I saw. It was a well planned, orchestrated trip with lots of laughs and good footage.

I’m sitting in the Istanbul International Airport writing this up because I have a long layover here. Considering the suicide bombings recently, this place is running like nothing happened except for the extra time spent going through your carry-on. It’s really busy here right now and all I can think of is getting back to Nepal for a 24 day trek along the Tibetan border searching for Snow Leopards and the Red Panda. It is a bit wet at the moment but hey; we should be able to find tracks a little easier. We are watching the weather in western Nepal and it’s an early monsoon season so we are waiting for the tail end to go. Jumla is in a downpour and plane flights are being cancelled at the moment. I’ll keep you posted.

Books by David Dagley:

Titles; ‘Cale Dixon and the Moguk Murders’, ‘White Bars’, ‘Women Of Cho’.

www.davidcdagley.com

http://sbprabooks.com/davidcdagley/

For more travel adventures go to my site listed below and click on a picture for a story and more pictures.

www.davidcdagley.blogspot.com

Sardine Run, South Africa Part 1

Sardine Run, South Africa Part 1

From the Durban Airport it’s about an hour south to Scottburgh and the Blue Dolphin Hotel. I stayed four nights and Crystal Divers, www.crystal-diver.co.az , was the dive company organized to take us to the dive sites. Eventually there were eleven and one quarter of us; she is the cutest most adorable 15-month old tour guide I’ve ever had. There may have been a plan but she still ran the show and was the second greatest attraction to the whole trip, a close second to the Sardine Run, the reason we all gathered here.

In the morning we normally joined up for an enormous Blue Marlin buffet breakfast then got organized for the day of two dives. A typical day was eat, go get sorted, head to the equipment room where we would get into wet suits and booties, hop in the back of a truck with benches and drive down to the beach followed by the Crystal Divers boat and Captai all ending up on the beach across the river just below the hotel. The Captain would slide the boat off the trailer on the beach at the water’s edge and we would push on the bow until it pointed into the on coming waves. After a timely moment waiting for the right amount of shore break we’d push the boat out over the shallow sand bars until the props could be dropped. The skipper would get on boat followed by the admirable ladies and then the rest of us would get on over the inflatable rails/seats. For the timely rough ride through the waves we wore life jackets and put our feet in straps attached to the deck of the boat and hung on. On numerous occasions the boat would launch off the backside of a wave and splash down out further to sea. It was definitely part of the adventure.

We dove our first two dives at Raggie Cave instead of changing sites because this is where the sharks were and it was worth both dives. The topography is a submerged sand dune that eventually grew soft and hard corals, grasses, and is ideal for Nudibranch, Lobster/or really big shrimp, and a plethora of fish varieties including Scorpion and Stonefish. It is protected waters but not all the waters in the area are protected.

I was hearing stories from the dive guides and others in the business like our boat captain saying that the Chinese are trawling illegally off shore and one year a boat was caught and brought in to the harbor and searched. Nothing was found, the boat was clean; it was then considered a decoy for other fishing vessels taking away mass swaths of aquatic life indiscriminately. A while later another boat was stopped and brought into the harbor where they found millions of dollars worth of fish product in the ship holds. The South African government fined them 20,000 Rand, about 1,300 USD and they were released. Corruption is not cool but rampant down here. Where’s a man like Mandela when a country can really use him and his equality for all stance. Today, down here in South Africa the government is primarily black and unfair with an almost reverse discrimination policy. Job hiring isn’t necessarily due to college degrees or qualifications to do a job well and efficiently. I don’t necessarily blame them but the economy and the people will all suffer as a whole from such biased activities. Job order is black women, white women, black men, white men, and everybody else is after that. For instance, my taxi driver has a college education and he and his wife both have menial jobs because he’s over qualified for most of the jobs but can’t possibly get the one he’s trained for. He and his wife both work to raise their family while unqualified civilians get jobs they are not necessarily trained or experienced to take nor the wages that come with it. Basically the President of South Africa took 300 million Rand from the people, reclaimed ranch lands and farms and pays himself more than President Obama of the United States. He recently bought Land Rovers for each of his seven wives. My question is why would a man want to put himself through seven wives. Maybe he’s hoping they’ll all drive away. Just kidding/not. In any case, about 15 years ago there was a change of power in South Africa. People believed in the party it felt secure they voted in favor. People have died for it and against it, so maybe there are some transitional shock waves still resonating under the surface. As far as I know it’s still open for foreign investment but please keep it low key and stay with the rhythm of the people. Live music is always a plus.

On our second day of diving we went to a place called Cathedral or Church or the ‘Holy Place’ where we could kneel in the sand outside of a circular coral depression where the sharks hide out. There is a beautiful stone and coral arch at the entrance, a swim through if you will, a Cathedral entrance, really cool. I had my first head on encounter with a shark there. I was still coming along to get to the Cathedral after most everyone else had already arrived. I was busy watching other sharks and a turtle in the area where I had dropped down to the shoal. I entered a rock walled corridor leading to the cathedral as the other divers came to the entrance and a Raggie popped out of the Cathedral entryway and it came casually toward me at a lower depth but not by much lower. We kept swimming towards each other while I fumbled with my camera. The shark went underneath me by inches and I took a really clear photo of the inside of my lens cap, two actually, and the shark was gone.

After returning to shore to exchange tanks and grab a bite to eat and a cup of tea we launched back through the waves again and ended up diving the entire length of the shoal with a bit of current and a surge. On our ascent out of the water an oceanic black tip was spotted curiously swimming toward one of our group who had already surfaced with his dive buddy. It turned away before getting too close. The reason the shark was curious is because the diver was kicking his fins on the surface in and out of the water and the slapping fin sound attracts sharks, it sounds like a fish in distress.

All our dives finished up in the early afternoon and we had a late lunch at the hotel. The meals were included in the overall cost so you just had to pick something off the menu and make a cup of tea. The food was well prepared and the staff at the Blue Marlin did everything in their power to help and make our stay as pleasant and relaxing as possible. Crystal Divers staff treated us the same way; very excited to be diving and showing people the wonders of the nearby South African coast line. We would meet up and have a beer or a glass of wine around 530 when there would be a general gathering for up coming events or hang around a bon fire and listen to one of the founders of Shark Guardian, www.sharkgaurdian.com, talk about sharks in general with specifics monitoring of their decline in population or explain what Hollywood has indirectly done to the shark population via hype and scare tactics through sensational movies. The shark is a misunderstood animal and we should have an open mind. The real point I take with me now from Brendon is the simple fact that sharks have been around for millions of years without changing much.

Shark Guardian is a UK Charity that was founded by Brendon Sing originally from South Africa. Shark Guardian conducts educational presentations, conservation workshops to over 25,000 people every year – mostly school students. They are also involved with several shark and marine citizen science research projects including the eShark Project (eoceans.org), and work with several researchers and scientists in the top of their field. Working with other organizations and NGOs, Shark Guardian reduces the demand for, sales, retail and transportation of shark related products worldwide.

Sharks have lived through naturally occurring cataclysmic disasters and survived until we came along and over populated the lands with people and bizarre mystic medicinal needs including Shark fin soup, Manta Ray gills, Rhino Horn, Yatze—gumba, the caterpillar head fungus found at a particular altitude in North-Western Nepal. It’s a ‘longevity’ and ‘endurance’, a concoction you drink usually in tea but also in the wine, caterpillar included. You’re supposed to keep drinking Yatze-gumba which really turns up the demand and keeps it up. There is numerous other such nonsense remedies supposedly good for the ‘yang’ (Sexual stamina). I’m not sure why the Chinese are so interested in MORE stamina considering our over population problem as a planet that few can see for face value. And then there’s an economy to think of; heaven forbid or Allah forbid we make a change for the planet’s health. We’ll all just die along with it, except it will most likely rejuvenate and evolve in oh say a million years.

Brendon pointed out ways we could all help, data collection being one of the most effective means. When ANYONE goes diving or snorkeling and they see a shark or photograph a shark they can enter the data into a database that is public access available. www.eocean.org. He also pointed out it’s also important to enter the data that you DIDN’T see a shark or turtle or other animals. The negative tells as much of the story as the finding of an animal, especially if you are expecting to see them and you strike out, that’s important data.

Our last dive the next day was an epic shark dive without a cage. After Hollywood destroyed our notion of the sea and the animals in it, we ended up fearing the sea, the other two-thirds of the planet. ‘JAWS’ was a big movie back in the day and I remember when it came out. Fishing for sharks, killing large sharks became a fad and went viral. The fear of sharks kept generations on to the beach and not really in the water and today we still don’t know much about the sea. There are statistics out there that claim that more people die of bee stings, snake bites, car accidents, and of course war than any sharks. I now believe the stats as true. Not all sharks are terribly aggressive, some are for sure; like the Bull Shark, the Great White, the Brown - aka Zambezi, some migrate along the coastal waters probably following a food source. But not all are dangerous and we treat them indiscriminately as a whole. Our short sightedness is the real problem.

We tried to get up early and eat breakfast and get out in the water but one thing after another held us back. No big deal. We got out to the grounds and with the bait ball full of thawed baitfish, something oily in the food chain that would scent the water and leave a trail leading to us, we dropped it where we had been diving in the past to bring the sharks up. By the time we got to the dive site there were already three other boats there and we waited for them to go away and have the station that was already baited and we’d just continued the process and use it to our advantage.

Jumping into Shark infested waters is not exactly the most comfortable of feelings because I too have been brainwashed to think differently about them. I’ve dived with sharks but not actually trying to attract them before jumping in the water. Once I was underwater and watched the action I settled into a comfortable understanding seeing it first hand. The sharks didn’t want us; we are as alien as MARS. Of course some will most certainly take a bite out of you but more than 80% of the people bitten survive because we are not considered a food source for the sharks and we taste horrible compared to a fish, their normal food source. Half way through our shark dive another group did drop a cage with people in it watching us and the sharks.

    

The sharks, big Grouper and lots of little fish concentrated their attention on the bait ball but the sharks did periodic fly-bys and carry on, many times coming towards us individually, circle, and head back to the bait ball where Miguel periodically pulled out mashed up fish bits and tossed them loosely around in the water. He was wearing my GoPro on his head so I have some really good footage up close and personal but the shots I took from 10 meters away are no less fun. Again, it changed my mind about sharks and the way we treat them. Sharks deserve respect not annihilation because the potential option of extinction would be a proper personal foul on all of us.

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A huge Thank You to Crystal Divers, Blue Marlin Hotel and most of all to Brendon and Liz for forming Shark Guardian and arranging the logistics of this trip to South Africa together and putting us in the right place at the right time.

Book sites for David Dagley:

Titles; ‘Cale Dixon and the Moguk Murders’, ‘White Bars’, ‘Women Of Cho’.

www.davidcdagley.com

http://sbprabooks.com/davidcdagley/

For more travel adventures go to my site listed below and click on a picture for a story and more pictures.

www.davidcdagley.blogspot.com

Wicked Diving Expedition part 1 of 3

Wicked Diving Expedition Part 1

The Jaya

I put in 15 dives before leaving Waisai Town and this section of Raja Ampat Park. With only one dive on the day before departing Wicked Diving Resort I had some afternoon to play with and really wanted to see town. We had gone in a few times but not really exploring and I wasn’t going to get another opportunity for a while so when a chance came my way I went. Some people needed cigarettes and I wanted to get out more cash out of the ATM for the journey to come. Not so much for on the boat but for odds and ends at any of the three stops we were going to make on the way south on the Jaya, a Wicked Diving quasi sailing vessel heading south for a 19 day diving expedition to Komodo Island and Lubuan bajo town on Flores Island.

I hopped on the back of a motorcycle and I rode the 30 minutes into Waisai the main port and ferry destination from Sorong. This is where I picked up my one million-rupee/ $100 USD permit/entry fee for the Raja Ampat Islands Park. The Wicked Dive Resort is situated well out of town and isn’t strictly diving; snorkelers, bird watchers, and exploring travellers before they jump off to one of the many isolated guesthouses and homestays on the many islands in the park. The ‘resort’ is simple, big bungalows,3 meals/day and snacks, tea and coffee 24/7. Some people come for volunteer work at some of the marine conservation camps spread out all over the islands. As we motored into town I saw the new airport they are putting in that will one day connect Bali to Raja Ampat directly and I was glad I got here in the time before that day comes.

I got to the ATM, bought smokes and lighters, and asked my driver to head down to the waterfront. I had heard things about it and wanted to check it out for myself. When we arrived I was amazed to see a well-designed boardwalk lining the turquoise water and walkways out over shallow coral beds. Behind the walkway are many shops lining the opposite side of the road and all closed. The area hadn’t been cleaned in awhile and some of the light fixtures had be broken but repairable when the time came. There were bungalow resorts, nice ones, virtually empty. It was a ghostly part of town. I found out that when the ferry began coming here the government and locals expected a large influx of tourism, namely divers and birders and that Waisai would be the jump off point for all the islands but that has yet to happen. Sorong maintained its hold on jump-off status and is building a large dive center and will remain the center of the area until Waisai gets a little further developed. No one knows it’s out here. Even in the town proper there is new wood walk ways with trellis covers with various types of flowering vines beginning to grow up the wood towers made specifically for them. The town is ready for the tourists but the tourists aren’t ready for Papua New Guinea with all the lovely hatcheting going on in some other parts of Papua, the mountains.

We left the resort at 11am for the Jaya waiting for us in the harbor. After a few of us ran in to get last minute supplies we boarded the boat and got underway around 230 in the afternoon. The group leader gave us a warm welcome, as did the crew. There were many tears between the local staff and those on the boat returning to their families and homes in Komodo and Lubuan Bajo after 7 months in Raja Ampat.

We were assigned cabins and roommates and sorted out our last minute dive gear stuff. We peeled off the dock and headed for an equipment check dive once we got a couple hours out. It turned out I have had the pleasure of diving here a few days before and the biodiversity was exceptional. It was the first day out and already we had an excellent dive under out belts. The visibility wasn’t the greatest but the fish were there in force. I saw lots of Barracuda, a white tip shark or two and as the current picked up so did the fish.

The staterooms are not exactly spacious but they will do for the next 19 nights. I was happy not to be in a bunk. In most rooms there were two beds side by side with a walkway down the middle and out to a main hallway. There are 10 guests diving, 4 dive guides, and 8 crewmembers. The rooms have air conditioning if you want it, a locked porthole, and ample storage space under each bed for your belongings and boat dry goods.

From a cook to a captain in Alaska over a 16-year period I expected a ground swell but again realized how deep into the islands we are and the waters are fairly protected. The full moon just passed and here we are heading south under the shimmer of the moon and reflections off the waves. We’re travelling at approximately 6 knots with a 14-hour night crossing to the next dive site, Goa Farondi, where we are attempting 4 dives to really get the ball rolling.

Our first dive was a wall dive and I assumed a drift dive but in the miniature coves the water actually backed up and changed direction. The coves were calm while the straight between the islands rushed by at 3 knots. We didn’t notice until we needed to get away from the wall for our safety stop and get picked up by a skiff. (Around these parts they call them a ‘Scotchy’). We did three dives through out the day and then motored through the night to our next scheduled dive site. The sea was calm and the full moon has just passed a few days ago but still big enough to light up the surface and shimmer across the minimal ground swell.

We were back in the water off the coast of Misool by 9:45 with 4 dives planned including a night dive. The voyage planned for 2 days in the area because the diving is so good and we were not disappointed. A night dive was scheduled for the first night in a nice cove full of phosphorescent algae and eels among other critters. Obviously some dives are more difficult than others due to current but the dives are organized in such a way as to take advantage of the current and in many cases drift with it or avoid it on the lee side of an island or reef and work with it zigzag from the deepest allowed and slowly shallow up to a safety stop and back on a skiff. Around these parts they call a skiff or dingy a ‘scotchy’ and I have no idea why.

Our second morning at Misool diving Shadow Reef ranks in the top three dives I’ve ever done and it is due to visibility and the aquatic life we saw in an hour. We entered the water at 7:21 am and the current was minimal and we immediately saw sharks cruising the reef, turtles powering out of the depths, Lionfish out hunting all on our descent. Once at depth we saw schools of Travail hunting glass fish, Barracuda on patrol, big Napoleon Wrasse lumbering through the water like a barge, and a plethora of biodiversity all mixed and waiting for the current to pick up. One person saw an Oceanic Manta go by out in the blue. The colors of the corral we across the board. As we crossed the saddle of two submerged mounds we came across a reef manta heading for a cleaning station. While I was filming the Manta, Nick grabbed my fin and pointed in the opposite direction to show me a small group of dolphin just in view. I tried to continue filming the Manta but the underwater hoots and sounds of excitement spun me around to watch a dolphin on the surface not 20 meters from us get air and dive straight into the depth off the edge of the reef and out of sight. I returned to the Manta and it came closer on a few passes as it was cleaned. More Napoleon Wrasse arrived and basically watched us watch them. Unfortunately the rule is 60 minutes or 50 bar and out, these is for your safety and continued diving. This is one of those times where a couple extra minutes won’t kill you and at the safety stop, 5 meters for 3 minutes, we all continued watching in the shallows as an aquatic ballet got started. The next two dives were no less impressive with Nudibranch slugs, juvenile Emperor Angel fish, Juvenile Many spotted Sweetlips, both hard and soft corals in a rainbow of colors and presentation.

For the most part travelling from one site to another is done at night, some are 14 hours apart, some longer and some shorter but still putting us on nice sites seldom seeing other live-a-boards, just us and the remoteness of Papua New Guinea’s pristine waters without uneducated and unaware people standing on coral or touching it. This is one of the major downfalls of diving being popular; it should be mandatory to take a class on aquatics and oceans before a person can get a diving certification; this would bring everybody into the awareness fold and protect what we want to see versus destroy it.

We moved south out running a rainstorm but catching up to another some where in the night. By morning the clouds had scattered and the sunrise met me at around 6am. Most people are still asleep and I cherish the quiet with a cup of tea and the hum of the engine below me. Living on the sea for a long time in Alaska I still wake up when the RPMs change. As a cook, a deckhand, or mate the changing of RPM’s means something is about to happen and it’s time to get on deck. It doesn’t matter what time it is, it’s still automatic in my body. The engine slowed as we approached Madorang, a small reef island with an elevation of maybe 2 meters covered in coconut trees, sparse Mangrove, and underbrush. The reef reaches out to the north and you can see the clear water of the shallows surrounding most of the island. So far most of the islands have been limestone, aka uplifted sea floor and the wall we explored had many caves and tunnels and places for fish to hide and get out of the current and escape larger predators. The visibility was about 25 meters and again a slight current from the north. We dropped in and got down to about 28 meters and slowly crept along the coral fans looking for pigmy seahorses and Nudibranch. There were lots of fish and we continually looked out into the blue for some of the larger pelagic species that surely pass by. Most of our dives run the full hour unless kicking into a current. This dive was no different and we all spent the hour in 30 C water in a pair of shorts and a rash-guard, no wetsuits in our group, yet. Today is my bro’s birthday, happy birthday bro.

We moved after the first dive and headed south for a few hours to Palau Makola and had a dive on each side of the island and both were full of life with the visibility between 20 to 30 meters. There was a cold front sitting at the edge of a shelf drop off and I did my best to stay out of it. You can literally see these cold fronts where the two temperatures mix there is considerable distortion and the photos come out a little funny. I caught a couple good shots of a Honeycomb eel while I was looking for Nudibranch on a nearby coral mound. Another diver spotted some Devil Rays cruising along in the thermal band below. I put my feet and fins in it and decided against the chill.

After our third dive we were off for Banda, considered the most beautiful archipelago Indonesia has to offer. There’s a small town on an island where we will restock after 3 or 4 more dives. We arrived at 5 am, before the sun cracked the horizon and motored a ‘rat and dog’, aka a figure 8, waiting for daylight to enter the harbor. On our first 6 days out we went through 5 tons of water, or 5,000 liters and that basically for showers and rinsing on the deck. It had to be mentioned because if we keep this up we won’t get to shower the last few days of the next 7-day section and the one after that. I know it isn’t me because I’ve only taken one shower and don’t need shampoo. I don’t feel the need because I’m in the sea for the day and a quick rinse does the trick. Things will change on the next section and everybody will be more conserving than on this section. Dawn is breaking and I’m listening to Alice in Chains, Nutshell. (Unplugged). Nice.

So we got in the water by 730 am and the visibility was around 30 meters along a wall of a small island and got down to about 28 meters and slowly came back up over the next hour. On the way we ran into more Honeycomb eels, Moray Eels, Red Tooth Trigger fish in vast numbers, I saw at least 5 black and white Banded Kraits, sea snakes, poisonous but docile. Oh and then I thought I saw a Sea Moth but it turned out to be a Devil Scorpion Fish, just another animal that can do serious harm or death. Between the eels, snakes and Scorpion fish, all-in-all a very good dive.

Our second dive out played our first dive with 35-meter visibility on the opposite side of a nearby small island where we again ran into loads of eels, coral fans, and a very chilled Hawkbill Turtle. Once we entered the 10-meter shallows all red filters on underwater cameras came off due to adequate sunlight and water clarity.

Back in 1988 a volcano blew out here and we dove the lava flow that reached the strait between the neighboring islands. In 28 years it was impressive how much Lettuce Coral had grown but there weren’t very many animals yet because the other hard corals are still quite juvenile. There are a lot of caves and hollows for clams and dark places to hide so they will come. Two Cuttlefish were protecting their eggs and trying to keep us away from their territory. Most of us understood, some of us were blinded by the sight of them and the want of film clips. We all moved on eventually and I hope they have many young.

Our forth and last dive of the day was a sunset dive off the jetty in Banda town searching for a very colorful Mandarin fish that comes out at dusk. It turned out to be a ‘muck’ dive meaning looking around in the rubble and garbage that people have been throwing in the sea since the Dutch were here gathering spices and making a financial killing while the locals did most of the work. Over time people have continuously thrown things, dropped materials and left items that ended up literally just off the town wall. The original Dutch built breakwater wall is in pieces down under the surface and then there is another wall and concrete blocks and rubble building up the slope to the seabed. This all makes for great places for animals to hide such as the Mandarin Fish, Pipe fish, Octopus, Crab, little lobster and again stacks of Red Toothed Trigger fish.

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