Day 63-65 / Tag 63-65 May 14-16 Raja Ampat Part 1

This post covers a long timespan, three days of a full week, with a lot of diving on a confined space in a remote area. It can be only rough notes and many details will be missing. It is hard to travel and report at the same time, when you dive four times a day, surfacing after each and every dive with a smile on your face, with so much to see and so much to explore

Embarkation somewhere in the port of Sorong.
People in Papua Barat can look somehow different sometimes...

"Pearl of Papua". That's the name of the ship we embark and will travel on for the next 7 days.
A group of 14 Spanish, two spanish Cruise Directors, a German (me), and two handful of crew.

Standard languge on board is Spanish, some try to push their Catalan...
The boatmaster is American, Evan, he's had about 800 dives here in Raja Ampat and knows his way around. Crew and dive staff are locals from the area, which is always the best you can encounter.

Cruising from Sorong to Southern Raja Ampat

the Voyage through the channel feels like a river cruise, two or three villages, a natural gas plant,
it rains. Can't see any other ships

15.5
Between Misool, Banda and Papua , en quinto coño , culo del Mundo, middle of nowhere.
No network, no telephone.
Wake up call 06:00
Crew checks current. Some passengers are seasick.

We are 17 divers. Dive in two waves of two groups. Not enough Nitrox for all, so the cruise director decides to alternate air and Nitrox dives. Air, Nitrox, Air, Nitrox, Air etc

Typical dive schedule

First dive 07:00
Nitrox, Candy store. Feel uncomfortable first 10 min until I get my breathing under control.
Vis is not good not bad. Took some shots of my buddy Angie, otherwise concentrating on the dive.

Second dive on Air, Andiamo, nearby, better consumption, 55 min, 23 m deep, up with 35. Some see mantas, I can't make them out in the blue..., going for the barracudas instead.

My dive buddy is Angie, we also share cabin. Hyperactive and energetic woman in her fourties (guessed ;-), with this loud rough Spanish voice and brillant eyes.
Seems to be experienced Diver, perfect buddy, communicating under water, taking care, it's a joy to dive with her, same consumption more or less, she comes up with 10 more, sometimes less, bar than me.

As far as my Spanish allows, from the conversations I understand she comes from the Canary Islands, lives in Madrid now, but is on the leave, looking forward to go to southern Spain. She used to work as a mechanic in the Spanish army, until she was retired after surviving a plane crash in an AWACS.
Later I learn she also worked as an underwater model, that explains her posing for the camera, I guess

After the second dive, we cruise closer to Misool,  passing countless islands without names. No other ships as far as the eye can see. Hope to anchor there in a more sheltered place, we all did not get too much sleep last night, ship was rolling in the open sea after we left the channel, cruising with engine on until 5am.

On this second day of our journey we see another ship for the first time after leaving Sorong. This area is truely remote.


16.5.
More awesome diving.

My first foto of a pygmy seahorse

Crocodileflatheads

Raja Ampat is not so much a place for creatures you will see only here, like the Lembeh Straits, instead it stands out for its biodiversity, you can see all kinds of marine life in one dive, that would take you five dives in Thailand and Malaysia together.
Raja Ampat is also a place for things you don't see here: plastic.
My buddy found a piece on the first day, i found one on the third..
Imagine: diving for days and days without seeing a piece of plastic!

first plastic piece after 3 days, a single use cup

The diversity of corals can be breathtaking, with dozens of species and colours on a spot of the size of a letter paper.

pretending to eat cauliflower

the orangutan crab

Mansur (Pelos) and Antonio

Moray Eel

Parrotfish

Fun on board

The third and fourth dive are at two small rocks close to each other, Tank Rock and Nudi Rock, the latter merits its name due to its shape that really looks like a giant Nudibranch sitting on the surface.



My buddy is so fascinated she refuses to go up when at 20 bar and safety stop clean, instead wants to guzzle down her gas to zero, yelling with joy when she finally surfaces.



Antonio from Burgos, farmer, fan of Metallica and historic cars, shows me two Wobbegongs, carpet sharks and a couple of flathead crocodile fish.



In return I take some nice pictures of him with the Mantas at Magic Mountain, before my camera gets foggy again.

Contemplation for some time, today is the funeral of my uncle Bernie, who died last week. "Life is one of the hardest, but it's good training" was his motto. May you find peace and rest, Bernie.

See you under water