Minahasa Lagoon Resort & Dive Club - Day 3

  Tanahwangko, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Day 3 brought more awesome diving over at Bunaken.  How can you keep diving the same site over again, you ask?  Like we said, there's so much to see it's impossible to cover it all no matter how many dives you do there.

The happy dive couple - Heyyy!

 

There's always something new to see and seeking out the hidden critters almost always results in big rewards.  The abundance of sea life is absolutely incredible.  We've all commented on how different peoples' perspective of the ocean might change if everyone could dive beneath the surface and catch a glimpse of what we've seen.

Coral gardens - Incredible!

  

Our dives today were at a site called Mandolin, which was apparently some sort of reference to how back and forth the currents can change.  We didn't get it, but we did get some incredible photos while we were there.

Soft corals

Clownfish at home in the anemone

 

Pam along the coral gardens

The coral gardens stretch on forever, and are teeming with life.

Great macro shots to be had!

More clownfish at home, guarding the baby!

After the first dive, everyone hopped back in the water in swimsuits so we could snorkel a bit.  It felt great, but it sure doesn't take long to get a sunburn going in the tropical sun here on the equator! 

Once the second dive was finished, we hung out a bit longer having lunch before returning to the resort.  There was no hurry in getting back, as we had to head straight through a storm that had crept across the area.  It rained like crazy!  The boat handled it just fine and only one person felt any bit of queasiness.  The rain couldn't possibly dampen anyone's spirits, what with how perfect the trip has been so far.  We all stayed warm and dry inside the boat (it was a tropical rain after all), but it definitely sucks to be the new guy on the boat crew!

The new guy!!

We continued on and eventually emerged on the other side of the storm and pulled back into the resort at about 4pm.  That finally gave us time to sit in the bar and get this darned blog thing caught up!  :-)

At about 6:30pm, five of us then ventured out on a night dive back to Emma's Point.  It's amazing how quickly darkness sets in here.  Equal time of day and night here on the equator.   The dive started out kind of ho-hum.  It was a muck dive, but we sure weren't finding much of anything.  We haven't gotten the knack for finding anything anyway yet, so the actual job of finder was left to our Divemaster guide.  Sure enough, after a little time went by, we started finding the odd and unusual critters all over!  No idea why they like to call a bare sandy bottom their home, but the place was filled with nature's oddballs.  You would have to see it to believe it.  Here are just a few photos:

Coconut octopus

This coconut octopus carries it's home with it! 

Coconut octopus

Cute little fish, no ID yet

  How could anyone resist this face?

Or this one??  Can things get any stranger looking? 

Cowfish - how bizarre!

 

Immitating a leaf - no ID yet

  There were two of these, both standing on their heads trying to imitate a stalk of some plant growing out of the bottom.  Pam spotted these guys! 


The muck diving is just a taste of what's in store for us on our next stop, which will be the Lembeh Resort over on the other side of Sulawesi.  It's pretty much all volcanic sand and bare flats, but is loaded with the weirdest fish out there.  Stay tuned!  Day 4 will take us back out to Bunaken for more fabulous wall diving.  None of us can get enough!  Oh, and tomorrow evening we'll also be checking out the mating Mandarin fish.  They are incredibly beautiful and put on a courtship dance not to be missed.  Hopefully we'll have some pictures for you!  Bye for now!!
 

The happy dive couple!