Komodo Liveaboard: Day 2

Dive 1:Crystal Rock

 It was an exciting morning aboard Amalia today as we listen to Nelwan give our dive briefing for our first spot, the famous Crystal Rock. The excitement comes from this spot being a high current, high intensity, big fish kind of dive. Heidi and Cristina would group together to do the deep dive part of her advanced diver certification course, while Tim, Mr. Han, and I would group with Nelwan.

Tim holding on for dear life

  We geared up, jumped in the small boat and prepared for a negative entry, which means we let all the air out of our jackets, and immediately descended once we rolled backwards off the boat. The entrance went well and we could feel the current rushing against us so we booked it down to the bottom. Once there we all grouped up, grabbed onto a big rock and enjoyed the fish show. There were big schools of jacks, tons of little colorful reef fish, and even a white tip reef shark swimming in front and above us. The current was so strong that when I turned my head slightly my mouth piece was almost ripped out of my mouth, and I watched next to me as Tim's bubbles blew straight backwards instead of up giving him the illusion of flying like superman.

Hawksbill Sea Turtle

  After enjoying the fish show we lifted off the bottom and drifted quickly off with the current. We had to be careful not to let the current force us away from the pinnacle, but it was easy enough to stay close and make our way to the lee, or protected side of the rock. At least it seemed easy to me, poor Mr. Han was drifting higher and higher, trying to swim back down to us to no avail. Our guide Nelwan bolted up towards Mr. Han, locked hands and then dragged him back down to our level. They were both shaken up a bit, but I was busy photographing a very clean hawksbill sea turtle that was on a mission into deeper water. This is also when we met up with Heidi and Cristina, so we swapped groups, Heidi came with us and Mr. Han with Cristina and everyone was happy.

     We found a nudibranch and a pale scorpionfish up in the shallows and had to be called out of the water eventually because we just didn't want to leave.

  Dive 2: Crystal Bay

Colorful Peacock Mantis Shrimp

Tiny Waspfish

 After all the craziness of the first dive we decided to take it a bit easier for dive number 2. We were anchored in a calm, protected bay so we decided on a muck dive in the sandy part of the bay. Usually sandy patches are pretty void of life during the daytime and then they come alive at night but we were still able to find some pretty interesting creatures hanging out on the few coral bommies that dotted the bottom here. We found a new nudibranch, some colorful mantis shrimp, and the always cool waspfish.

  Dive 3: The Cauldron 

  This was a narrow strip of water running between two small islands up in the north of Komodo National Park. So obviously we were expecting a lot of current, especially with a name like 'the cauldron.' However once we jumped in we realized that the combination of slack tide and a mid moon phase brought about some easy diving conditions.

Shark Spotted

The Show

  We set about looking for small things in the beginning like a pygmy sea horse, which remained elusively hidden from us, but ended up having lots of encounters with big snappers, jacks, and even a few white tip reef sharks at the end. The visibility just got better and better as we swam through the gap, and at one point we just sat behind this rocky ledge watching a shower of big fish school above us. It was one of those areas where you feel like you are watching a national geographic film, in super 3D.

Snorkeling with Turtles

 We had completed three dives before even sitting down for lunch. It was a pretty productive morning. I had a lot of pictures to go through already. But I didn't want to miss any opportunity, so when the option of going for a quick snorkel at a possible manta spot came up I jumped on it, as did everyone else. We didn't end up seeing the mantas, although we did score another hawksbill sea turtle. But we did find our current. Luckily the boat just drifted along with us in the current so finally when we were all ready we just kicked over to the boat and clambered aboard.

Flamboyant Cuttlefish

 Dive 4: Night Dive- Sraba Besar

We had spent a lot of time in the water up until this point but we weren't stopping just yet. We still had a night dive planned. Nelwan told me to bring the macro lens so I got ready for another muck dive. The big finds were a flamboyant cuttlefish and a beautiful orange frogfish.

  We also got to see hunting stingrays and lionfish. The lionfish would actually follow our lights and when we shined a small fish the lionfish would pounce on it and gobble it up. This only problem with this clever behavior was that at any point you might have a very friendly, but very poisonous lionfish right underneath you. This is one fish you would not want to touch down on. One prick from a spine and you would be ending your vacation early. A few times I had to cover my light, cloaking myself in darkness, to get away from the prowling lionfish. We all made it back safely.

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