Capturing the Moment

 I can't believe that Day 5 of our 6 day liveaboard trip has already come. We have covered some distance and seen a lot already. Today the Amalia headed back North a bit to central Komodo for a bit of muck/macro diving with some beautiful underwater reefscapes thrown in.  We were still on a nudibranch kick from south Rinca so we kept the good nudi vibes going with some fun new finds. Our first dive was a site called Pil'arsteen. We checked out the beautiful 3 sisters dive site next where hunting blue fin trevallys scoured the reef. But it was our third site of the day that really blew us away. Under the waves lapping up against a small island was a muck divers dream. We found robust pipefish, ribbon eels, nudibranchs, relative of mandarinfish, and the ultimate find, thanks to Heidi's keen eyes, the cute, yet deadly blue-ringed octopus. This was a dive site called Wainilu, and would be another to add to your 'must dive' list while in Komodo.  The diversi...

Geared up and ready to go   Dive 1: Batu Balong     This is one of the premier dives in Komodo. If you only have a couple days in the park then this site should make the list. It is an exposed rock pinnacle that tumbles down into the depths. The walls are covered with soft coral of greens and pinks and fish of every color swim nearby. Big pelagic fish come in for closer looks here all the time. We had some dogtooth tuna, a massive napolean wrasse, a white tip reef shark, and lots of big jacks swimming along the wall here. Then angelfish and anthias swarm closer to the reef making the whole wall look alive. Juvenile Angelfish  We had seen several adult angelfish on our dives here and Bali, but this was the first place of the trip where we found juvenile angelfish. Besides looking nothing like the adults, these juveniles may just be the wildest and most beautiful of any fish on the reef. Their irridescent blues and psychodelic patterns put them in a class...

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 stro...