10/4/11 – Day 5 – Mandarin fish: Much ado about nothing
Decided to join the mandarin fish hunt tonight and amazingly, Sarah agreed to come along. She rarely goes night diving so I can only assume that the promise of really pretty fish convinced her. The idea is that the mandarin fish, a garishly hued species that does a mating dance at dusk, can be seen at certain places on the reef. I didn’t know anymore than this, but got ready for it like I would any other night dive.
Turns out that they do not want you to use white light lamps (only red light, which the fish can’t see) because this disturbs the mandarin fish. Also, we are to sit in a circle in about 3m of water waiting for the fish to come out. The good news is that the fish were plentiful here – I saw about 6-8 alone. I wasn’t cool with sitting in the dark with no light, and then losing my night vision repeatedly from high-powered strobe flashes by the photographers on the other side of the circle. All just to see some fish chase each other (supposedly they also “kissed” later on). I eventually (after 15 min), got bored, and wandered the reef with Sarah. She seemed to like it and found it “not scary” though I was plenty scared by how many sea urchins came out in the area we were in. All in all, I think it’s a unique diver who likes mandarinfish dives and it won’t be on my list of repeat to-do’s in the future.
10/5/11 – Day 6 – Nearing the end
The days have settled into a rhythm:
7am Wake up & get breakfast
8am In the boat for two morning dives
1:30pm Return to the resort for lunch
1-5pm Lunch, relax, nap, work on photos, work emails, read for 4 straight hours (if you are Sarah)
5pm Night dive – house reef or mandarinfish hunt
7:30pm Dinner
8:30-11pm Chat with other guests, share photos, update logs, work emails, read for 3 hours (if Sarah)
11pm Bedtime
It’s really quite relaxing – though the dives are by far longer here than anyplace I’ve been to before, they’re not tiring (no strong currents, sites are nearby, and the staff handles just about all your equipment transfer for you). The weather has been perfect, about mid-70s, light breeze, no humidity, and dry with only a couple episodes of rain. The staff is lovely, there’s tons of places to lounge around and you can be as social or introverted as you want. Best of all, no outside hawkers or vendors or random people, so it’s quiet and you can leave your rooms unlocked. We had originally planned to do some sightseeing or land trips, but never felt the need or really had the energy to do so. This is a perfect vacation site and resort for busy people who want to unwind, but also stay connected if they want (there’s wi-fi with enough bandwidth for email, but not enough for VOiP, so don’t plan on making calls)
This morning, we had a nice treat. We were originally supposed to dive at Leaning Rock I, but when we got there, there were too many divers (there is a 15 diver max, incl guides) rule in Lembeh, so we diverted to a site called Angel’s Window. We dropped in, went through a swimthrough (hence the site name), and then I heard Marnez uncharacteristically making signaling noises. I looked up to see the last thing I expected at a macro site: the huge, slow-moving, and unmistakable silhouette of a mola-mola (oceanic sunfish). The solitary animal was about 10m away, moving at a relatively shallow 5-10m. Several of us swam with it for awhile and it didn’t seem to be spooked, though it started moving away from the reef. I got a short video and a single photo. We finished the rest of the dive, then Simon, the resort owner, who had joined us to check out his new camera and housing, linked back with us near our surface interval. I showed him (while still underwater) the shot of the mola mola, and to my surprise, he gave me the one-finger salute. When we were back on the boat, he explained, saying that in all his time here, many thousands of dives, he’s never seen one either when he worked in Bali or here in Sulawesi. Paulus, a local guide, was also surprised, saying that in his 20 years diving here, he’s never seen one. Sometimes Lady Luck shows up at the most unexpected times.
