Aye Calypso I sing to your spirit

so i never had time to get this part of my trip journaled, but since I'm just waiting for the franks here in bangkok, finally had the chance

10/5
Arrived in Maumere from Moni to see amongst the scattering of hardly water worthy vessels in the indonesian port, one beautiful wooden ship sitting there. The Cheng Ho! The boat I was to be on the next 12 days.
So a little background: This is one of those lucky things that can happen to you when you're on a long trip. In the philippines I had met Hergen and Kerri at a diving place. They had actually been working in Indonesia in the Bali and Komodo area for quite some time on liveaboards and such and told me that when I got to bali I should email them for suggestions of where to do a bit of diving. Well, when I got to bali and emailed them, they suggested I contact the company, Kararu, that they used to work for (they had just moved to Manado in Sulawesi for the diving up there) and see if they had any last minute deals, especially with the economy in a worse state than the coral reefs these days. I heard back and found out there had just been a big group, who had chartered a boat, cancel for some reason. Well, this boat still had to make it from maumere to Ambon for its next group of people to pick up that would be going from Ambon to sorong and the raja ampats in papua, so this meant it was going no matter what. So they offered me an incredible deal to go on this ship last minute since with the cancellations they were now empty at the moment and obviously had little hope of getting many people b/c most people thinking about doing a trip like this were 2 week holidayers from europe or the states. The ship is a luxury sail ship with first rate diving. They offered me 65% off of the normal fair for the lowest class single bunk, waved the port fees (worth over 500 US), free use of all dive equipment, and a free upgrade to their nicest room, the state room. Even at 65% off, the trip still wouldn't be considered cheap, but after to talking with hergen and Kerri as well as Bill and Lisa Bubb from Australia who had done some similar trips, I decided it would be stupid not to do this trip since I was in the area and wouldn't even require a flight to get there, as who knows how long the reefs will last and as this is supposedly the 2nd most diverse reef area in the world (behind the raja ampats just next door) as the ocean apparently started way back when where the raja amapts are now, so the species are the most diverse. For example, the caribbean has like 30 species of butterfly fish and this area has over 350 species. And I'd also get to see some cool parts of indonesia that are usually either very expensive to get to or take a really really long time.

So I arrived at the hot, sweaty, and dirty port of maumere in flores to be ushered into the Cheng Ho, served and icy welcome drink, introduced to my luxury cabin, and no matter how hard I tried to decline the offer, had my luggage carried for me to my cabin. I met Peter and Kristine the dive cruise directors from Chicago and California. The other guests would be arriving in about an hour from the airport. I expected several people, but to my surprise there were only 2. Keep in mind the ship usually takes 18, but can hold 21! Dirk from Amsterdam and Paul a physician from Tampa who is originally from Puerto Rico. We were also introduced to the other two dive guides Bawa and Nyoman from Bali. So here we were, on this luxury ship, just the three of us, with 4 dive guides. We were all tingling with excitement and knew the trip would be amazing. We got a tour of the ship that had a huge and beautiful dining area, top decks for relaxing, and even an entertainment room with a huge flatscreen and an amazing video and novel library. They also gave me a laptop to use for the trip. The internet was actually broken, but not that it would have mattered b/c it did cost 2 bucks per email sent. But I used it to catch up a bit on my blog by just writing in word and then pasting when I got back to the internet and for looking at photos we took. And it was basically anything we wanted we could get. We had full access to sodas, fruit juices, milk, candies, cookies, and fresh fruits. I must have gone through so many oreos and milk the first day. That had been another thing I was craving: oreos dipped in milk. We would be served 5 meals a day. A first breakfast before the first dive with all the food of a real breakfast: fresh fruit, cereal, breads, etc. Then a real breakfast with eggs or french toast or whatever. Also there were afteroon snacks. And then a alway tasty buffet lunch and dinner that rotated between asian food (indian, indonesian, chinese, japanese (sushi!), and thai) and western (american, mexican, italian and just standard western fare like big pieces of meat). The interior of the ship was all decorated in balinese and papuan designs and pictures. And the whole ship itself, a 160 ft. long wooden phinisi schooner (traditional indonesian styled ship), was just beautiful, and kind of had the air of pirate ship.

We did a check out dive, a night muck dive, just off the boat in the port and immediately the diving was off to an amazing start and we knew the trip would be great. We saw an adult epillette shark and a juvenile one as well as lots of cuttle fish and two leaf fish. I didn't know quite how amazing it was to see an epillette shark, yet alone two of them, but Paul excitingly explained how rare a sight they were. It was great having Paul on board b/c he was so enthusiastic and was always making sure we knew just how amazing the diving was or what we were seeing. He's a physician as I said, but also is the photographer expert for a dive shop in tampa and has literally done hundreds of liveaboards and thousands of dives all over the world, so he knew what he was talking about. During and after the trip, he loved to say how my diving career had only begun not long ago, but now was over b/c there was no way I could ever live up to a trip like this (except at the raja ampats). Everything else would seem 2nd rate. (of course everyone is entitled to their opinions and other people have told me the solomon's, pulau, or komodo are just as good or better, so don't worry I still have places I can go in the future =)) And, yes, I would agree with him that these were the most diverse reefs I had ever seen and I saw everything I had hoped to see and more. Just so much. However, I would not say they are the healthiest reefs I have seen. This is b/c we were diving just in a lot of random islands, none of which are protected as national parks. A lot are fairly protected just due to remoteness and distance, but they are still fished. Because as Peter said, in indonesia fish is food. And even more than that shark fins and other big fish like napoleon wrasse are like gold for them when selling them to the chinese and japanese in the some legal and mostly illegal fish trade. So b/c of this we didn't see as many sharks or other big pelagic fish (napolean wrasse, bumpheads, barracudas, tuna) as you would expect to see (though we did see some) in a truly healthy coral reef ecosystem, but that didn't matter to me b/c I had gotten to see lots and lots of the big stuff at Sipadan in malaysia and tubattaha in the philippines. And the diversity of the reefs and fish there was just so staggering and amazing. After the dive we set sail for eastern flores on our pirate ship under a full moon. I sat up on the crow's nest for a while and just enjoyed the breeze, the full moon, and the feeling of being on this ship.
10/6 Did 4 more amazing dives around eastern flores and serbete island going to a new spot each time. Of course saw amazing corals and fish and on top of that saw a very bold octopus, and some huge bumphead parrotfish and napolean wrasses. The scenery above water was just as nice. With gorgeous tropical islands and nice turquoise water. Today while sailing between dive spots I sat up on the crow's nest and enjoyed the wonderful scenery from 80 or so feet up. The captain also showed me how to read the navigation charts and let me captain the ship for a bit.

10/7 4 stunning wall dives in the alor archipelago, specifically kawula island. Just unbelievable diving really. Saw some eagle rays, black and white tipped sharks, bumpheads, napoleans, more nudibranchs than you could imagine and 3 cute little pgymy sea horses. These little guys were only first described by science in like the early 90's and sit on large sea fans. They're tiny (smaller than a standard paper clip) and take on the color and texture of the sea fan they live in, so are difficult to spot. It's at this place that Paul says this is the best diving in the whole world. Wouldn't disagree with what I've seen so far in my diving and snorkelling career. Of course the underwater world was only just part of it. Woke up in the morning on my plush bed, looked out my huge window onto nice water and a smoking volcano rising out of the sea. I mean even just sitting up on the deck, reading on this crazy pirate ship, watching the surreal water and the volcano was spectacular enough, let alone what was below the boat. On the night dive, we saw some really cool flashlight fish amongst other things and then set off under the full moon again. Of course that night I couldn't help myself but watch pirates of the caribbean after the tasty italian meal.

10/8 Still in the alor archipelago, but on to Pura island with 4 more dives. The first dive site was called clownfish (like nemo) alley and was just a carpet of anenomes which meant millions of clownfish Also two sweet frogfish. There was a fisher village on the island and some of the local kids came out in their little dugout canoes to see us. They had these home-made goggles made from broken glass bottles and wood that they use for diving. So we swam around and did some free diving with them as well. And crazy as this is, the front cover of the Indonesian lonely planet, which is a gorgeous photo with nice water, a sweet ship and some local kids with home-made goggles in it. Quite the surprise to find myself there and it turns out the ship was kararu's old ship. Saw two more pygmy sea horses here and lots and lots of the beautiful mandarin fish. On the night dive we saw two coral cat sharks and an ornate ghost pipefish. As we weren't sailing that night, we had dinner on the deck of the boat.

10/9 again in the alor archipelago at pura and alor island for 4 more dives. Just brilliant brilliant fishes. 3 octopi on one dive and 2 larger seahorses on another. And one of the big finds of the trip, I found a wonderpus, which is this amazing octopus (search it on the internet if you want to see what it looks like). That night was bbq dinner on the deck with steak and potatoes...probably from idaho haha

10/10 Alor Archipelago at alor island and ternate island. 4 dives. Of course great fish and corals. Some more frogfish, some cool flounders. lots of stonefish and scorpionfish. Sailed all night with pretty big waves as we were crossing into some big open ocean

10/11 3 dives today as we arrived late due to unfavorable currents and winds at Wetar Islands in the Molukas and also had to get moving early to make the next destination in time. Some more incredible wall dives here. As we had to leave early we had a movie afternoon up in the gallery with popcorn and vatican chase scenes in angels and demons. Some more sweet big waves crashing over the bow that night.

10/12 3 dives at gunung api island (fire mountain island). This little volcanic island sitting in the middle of nowhere in the ocean and home to thousands of sea snakes. If you've seen the planet earth series, this is where the sea snake stuff was filmed. 2 types of snakes here: banded and olive sea snakes. Sea snakes are the most poisonous snakes in the world, but their mouths are too small to bite humans and they are also non-aggressive. In fact, I really loved them. They're so curious. They would just come swim up from far away right up to you and then swim around you and try and check you out. I laughed watching the other divers with sea snakes following them. These snakes are basically the only sea creatures I've seen that don't swim away from you. Everything else you see a lot of their backside, but not these sea snakes. They'd come right up to you. There were hundreds of them and you could hold them and play around with them and they wouldn't care or even act bothered. Some some other cool things here like an octopus and blue-spotted stingray. When we had arrived at the island we could smell all the sulfur in the area and while under water on our 3rd dive, we felt (and heard in the water) a small eruption. Sailed again all night.

10/13

Woke up to 3 beautiful tropical paradise islands all interconnected by sand bars. We had the choice here to dive 2 dives at the beautiful walls here and 4 and the ambon, the next spot or do 1 hear and 5 at the next. We chose to do 1 here b/c we had seen lots of amazing walls and b/c ambon is very unique and diving and one of the best muck diving spots in the world. Turns out fate would also make this choice for me of one dive anyways. After a great dive with several sharks and turtles, I got up onto the tender boat. We sat there for about 5 minutes waiting for the rest of the people to get on. Once we got to the ship, I started getting a sharp pain in my abdomen on the left side. I asked the Peter and Kristine if they thought it was decompression sickness, but they said no b/c that's not one of the symptoms and I had dove conservatively (as you should) and it was the first dive of the day. Well in just a few more minutes, the pain got really sharp and I had to sit down. Then all of a sudden my left leg went numb. By then I had called over peter and paul (and where's mary?) to help me. Both my arms went tingly and then numb and my vision started to go wavy then I could hardly see at all, and I was getting pretty scared. I never full passed out and they quickly gave me oxygen. After a bit of oxygen and lots of water and an electrolyte drink the numbness went away everywhere except my left leg, but then a few minutes later, even that was gone. Both Peter and Paul (a physician) diagnosed it as dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. So I just rested the rest of the day, watching lots of movies as the ship sailed on towards ambon island and the capital of the molukas.

10/14 Ambon island molukas 5 muck dives, and absolutely amazing and out of this world. several octopi, a rare mimic octopus (similar to the wonderpus, but mimics other poisonous animals), lots of seahorses, flamboyant cuttle fish, flying gurnards, dragonets, 2 rhinopius, 2 leaf scorpionfish, stonefish, robust ghost pipefish, other pipefish, lots of cuttlefish, tons of lionfish and scorpion fish, several frogfish, lots of mandarin fish. Just amazing diving, like nothing I'd ever done.

10/15. I did one more muck dive on this day, seeing some of the same things. Paul and Dirk couldn't dive b/c they had a very early flight the next day and you need to allow 24 hours after a dive before flying...one of the bonuses of not pre-booking my flights with the company is I could get another dive. That afternoon I went to the airport to book my flight to jayapura as our ship was docked like 5 minutes from the airport. The travel agent that kararu uses had been looking for flights for me and the best deal he had found was 560 bucks flying to makassar and then having to spend the night and then flying to jayapura. Hmmm...this is indonesia and I knew better than to believe a travel agent or that a flight could be that expensive, so I went to check myself. And I found two different airlines going for 165 bucks and without having to spend the night in makassar! The rest of the day, I just relaxed and read and watched movies on the glorious cheng ho.

10/16 Sad goodbye to the chengho, it's crew, and dirk, paul, kristine, and peter. Flight to Jayaprua via Sorong.

Well, no doubt, the diving was truly amazing. And one of the best parts was that it was so diverse. Great wall dives, great coral. Muck dives. unique dives like clownfish alley and the snake island. And I loved how kararu set up it's diving where it wasn't a thing where you had to follow exactly behind the divemaster and all time and come up at exactly 50 mins or something. You could dive where you wanted and stay down as long as you wanted...or your air supply or dive computer let you. To me, this was really great!