Past two days

 

    I had a very relaxed day yesterday, I woke up at 6:30 and heard rain pelting down, so I went back to sleep and decided to wait a while. Leon came to wake me again at 7:30 and I lounged around in my bed for a bit until about 8, I then hopped out of bed and went to breakfast. On the walk over i noticed that it was very grey and gloomy, so I decided not to dive this morning. I had breakfast, and went back to bed until 11:30 when I got up again. The rain went on for a bit longer, and we hid in The photo studio. Eudon and Jeanette left us today, as they have to be back in Singapore.

                                            (Cleaner Shrimp On An Anemone At House Reef, Macro)
    The boat to Sorong left at 2, and we walked them fro. The studio to the dock. You could tell that they didn't want to leave, but they had a very nice sendoff. As with everything here on Pef, there was music and singing involved. They headed out on the resorts long boat, the Pef 1. We had planned to go on a boat dive that afternoon, but the weather had gotten really bad, so we decided to see what happened. 

                                            (Stinging Hydroids that frequent Raja Ampat, Macro)
    It cleared up later in the afternoon around 5 and Leon and I went for a dive on the house reef, located right off the jetty of the resort. I decided to try a new form of underwater photography, using a 18-50mm lens and getting close ups and detail shots of my subjects. It was a very laid back dive, just me and Leon, we were down for an hour, and I got some cook shots. First we came across a group of really brave bat fish, and they got right up close, i managed to get a few shots of them, one made the edit reel.

                                        (Giant Clam On The House reef, Macro)    After that we came across my current obsession  anemone with two clown fish and tons of tiny cleaner fish, and that made for some cool shooting. I didn't get any good shots of the clown fish, but the cleaner shrimp stole the show. I am still desperate to get my winning shot of one, It is quite hard to shoot them, as they are timid sand can hide extremely well in the tentacles of their homes.

                                          (Pipe Fish On House Reef, Macro)
    After the cleaner shrimp, Leon showed me a giant clam, which had awesome textures on it's muscle. I got some cool shots of it's muscle while open, after which we tried to get it to shut, but apparently when they get to a certain size they cannot close all the way. I was amazed to see the size of this clam it was easily 3 to 4 times the size of my hand, and I was more surprised to hear that the Papuan eat these, though Leon said it tastes awful and is tough.

                                                (Pigmy Seahorse at Wofu, Tiny, Macro)     When I was planning my trip, I was shocked to hear that there were no sea lice here, so I didn't bring any wetsuits. Right after I got here I realized my error, though there are no sea lice here they have stinging soft coral called hydroids. I have been stung so many times that I had Leon and Claudia order me a very thin wetsuit, as the water is comfortably warm, but I am through being stung by these bastards.

 

(Wobegong at Wofu, Macro)

    The first real macro shot I got was of a pipe fish, it is a thin little fish about the width of a pics of hay, and about 3 inches long. He moved really quickly, but I managed to catch him a few times when he stopped and hoped that I wouldn't see him. Though not far away, the dive was very cool and a learning experience.

                                                    (Bat Fish At the hose reef, Macro)

    Today was very cool 2 great dives on awesome reefs, and one dive on a morbid, pathetic, dead rock. The first dive was at Wofo, which was very cool. The coolest part of this dive was the pigmy seahorse, these little guys hide deep in sea fans, and blend in perfectly with the colours of their surrounding fan. They are extremely tiny like three grains of rice, and very hard to shoot. I took several shots of them and had one usable one. Claudia has edited the background for me so that it comes out black and white and the pigmy is in colour.

                                 (Map Of The Dives today, Yellow are dives, Red is the resort)
    The other highlight of this dive was the woebegong shark in an overhang, but unlike most wobbegongs, this one was easy to shoot, he was not hidden behind coral, but rather in a hole in the wall with nothing obstructing our view. Leon and I took turns shooting away at this guy while hovering over a large group of menacing lion fish. It was a great opportunity to shoot a wobbegong without having to shove yourself into some strange shaped hole and bumping your gear into rocks.

                                         (Beautiful Coral At Nikson's Garden, Wide Angle)    After the wobbegong, Leon and I worked on my skills by shooting soft corals. We surfaced after about 40 minutes. When the other two surfaced they decided that we would go to some other spot that they said was good. We got there hopped in, and went down, both Leon and I were shocked, it was a dead rock, but the "amazing" element of this site was the swim through cavern, which was about as excited as shooting photos of an all cement hallway with moss and tree roots growing through the ceiling.

                                                  (Clown Fish Hiding in his anemone)    We quickly took shots of the cavern, and got bored, ascending to what should have been a reef, but was a bit of a pathetic excuse of one. The highlight of the dive was shooting two sea slugs, which granted had great colour. We went up quickly and waited for the others to come up, which was about 30 minute on the surface.

                                               (Beautiful Soft Coral at Nikson's Garden)    We got back to the resort for lunch, and headed out on the third dive at an amazing spot called Nikson's garden, which had really incredible life. We went down to the bottom, and went nuts shooting all kinds of really vibrant soft corals, it was great. I worked more on my clown fish shooting and I will admit I am still not too good, but I am improving.

                                                  (Leon's Beaming Grin When he got Ice cream)
    We surfaced and headed back to Pef, where we intercepted a live aboard boat that was bringing more guests to the resort. The boat is called Puti Raja, and is a 105 foot sail boat. They brought to shore two more guests: Pat, and Jake, who are staying here for two weeks. After dropping the guests off the owner Ken and Josephine, took Leon out to the boat, they gave Leon a huge bag of ice-cream and he was beaming with joy. They gave a kid a bag full of candy and it showed.

 

(Leon's Ice Cream has been Delivered)

    I then was welcomed aboard to go around from the jetty of Pef into the lagoon with them, which was a great experience. Ken and his wife Josephine are really hospitable people, and were great to be with. The ride around took about 39 minutes all of which I was jumping around the boat taking shots. When we got to the lagoon Josephine made me a special mango juice and gave me some food, she really knows the way to get into a mans heart.

 

(The Rigging of the Puti Raja In Wide angle)

    They run a stunning boat, it is made in a classic Indonesian style and is al, wood. Ken told me that it was converted from a cargo boat, and that he wanted to keep it close to the original shape. I loved the boat it is beautiful, and from the short experience I had on it, I would already recommend the Puti Raja as a live aboard boat for Raja Ampat.

 

(Ken And Josephine and a crew member from Puti Raja)

                              (The Beautiful Puti Raja, an amazing Live aboard with a great crew)