Day 8: Raja Ampat

Day 8:   Raja Ampat

The fitness center is open...in the sharp early light

Quote of the Day: 

I rode a tank
Held a general's rank
When the blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank

Weather: 80s and muggy, gonna be like this for another 6 days

Trash floating by; most of the time the water and beaches were pretty clean

Getting ready for divers and snorkelers

The dive boat

The divers' debrief: Hawaiian couple left and right, B front center, M the Roman closes to camers

Off the divers go

THB slept well from around 9pm to 6am. Coffe and breakfast on the deck. At 9am 4 members of cruise leftg to take their shakedown dive. At 9:30 the rest of left to take our shakedown snorkel. 

THB does not have an underwater camera so there will be no direct pics of fish. THB did make pics of some of the fish we saw from a Raja Ampat book, they will show up in a later post

And, we ended up in about the same place: over coral reefs around 15-30 feet deep. Some of the coral had been bleached, much of it was still healthy. Large schools of fish (some well over 5K fish) and most fish pretty large (not too many small ones). Very colorful small yellow sponges, purple starfish, large blue sponges. Water varied from very warm to maybe 10 degrees cooler, all having to do with which current you were in at the time.

Lunch by our guy Adrian was off the charts! Subtle tuna spread (texture of hummus), a fish soup with local white fish, mussels and giant flavorful shrimp with a large piece of Tartine-style sourdough for dipping. The bread was imported from a guy Adrian knows in Bali, unfortunately not available at retails. Sorbet and iced tea.  The soup was easily a 5* rendition and we had no real easy way to identify the seasoning; obviously made with local spices we don’t get (without trouble) in E-ville.

An hour presentation: a broad brush of the compilation of the diversity of this large nation. No real history and nothing presented as resentful of colonialism.

It is staying light here until almost 7pm. At some point we’ll be crossing the equator.

Kayaking at 4p: it is hot and steaming, we’re going with the tide from open water to the bay where the Aqua Blu is anchored. One eagle spotted (and photographed!) and otherwise nothing of note to report. It was just jungle out there.

West Coast docs

One of few bird pics...eagle!

THB takes a rest and joins the happy hour mid-drinking. Clearly the access to free booze is not something that several of the cruise members should avoid. Got very loud and rowdy, especially after a day where dehydration was everywhere. That carried through the presentation of tomorrow’s schedule and activities and dinner.

February serenading February b'day boy, THB

DB had arranged a very nice small party outside our cabin on 4^th level. Cake, champagne and a crew member doing a very good Elvis impersonation and playing the ukelele. These long celebrations that seem to carry over 48 hours are getting to be a real habit. We gave the leftover cake to the captain, our stateroom is right next to the bridge (no, the captain was not the Elvis impersonator).