Day 9: Raja Ampat

Day 9: Raja Ampat

Breakfast number 1

Quote of the Day: 

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
Ah, what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah

Weather: Same-same

M&B, east coast couple, got confused about departure time so we hustled back and got them

Pics from the lagoon expedition:

Hawk

Pre-breakfast 6:30am tender ride to see limestone “cliffs” in a small inlet. Excellent pastries, lousy coffee. Not a lot of bird life is spotted: an egret, swallows, a hawk, some bird calls. Water is crystal clear, we can see 10-20 below and look at the coral and fish.

Back for breakfast around 7:45, fried rice and pickles for THB, some granola and mango yogurt. Rest up for snorkeling at 10:30. Dolphins seen playing around the boat.

A walk-able sand bar, so picturesque it should be the cover pic

It’s a drift dive (4) and snorkel (9), very fast current. THB’s mask fogs up, and he doesn’t think he’s seeing the bright colors of the fish that well. It’s so fast a current that the tender picks us and we do the same snorkel again, except faster. Now THB’s mask is leaking water. There are two other types of masks on board so THB will give one of the other styles a go tomorrow.

THB must be standing on a rock, right?

Make-it-yourself poke bowls for lunch, a good choice a buffet allows everyone the choice of what they like. CYS doesn’t eat shrimp, which per Adrian is the only eating concern among the 13 of us (unusually low total!).

Post-lunch we see episode one of a 1977 documentary where two brothers, 22 and 25, retrace Wallace’s 1850 8 years in the Malaysian archipelago (no much of it in Indonesia). We’re read a lot about Wallace and the documentary maybe not best seen in the mid-afternoon as a number of us take brief naps while watching. At least 3 more episodes of Ring of Fire left to go.

There’s an afternoon dive (4) and time off for the snorkelers (9) because it is too rough for the snorkelers to enjoy themselves. Free time: letting bathing stuff dry out, catch up on the blog text, work on pics, reading, bemoaning the 9ers loss (it is  Monday afternoon here when the game ends and THB doesn’t think too many of the cruisers care much). And THB tries on a different mask which, if it works, is a huge upgrade over the one used the last several days.

Sunset cruise on the tender, drink and pupus served, some wildlife spotting including a few large grey herons and serenading on the ukulele and harmonica. Bob is Blowing In The Wind and Knocking on Heavens Door, Neil seaching for a Heart of Gold, and other classics.

There is a manta ray in the water, just the wing tips are visible

Trash?

It's a duo doing the serenading

Elephant cloud

Aqua Blu at sunset

The usual pre-dinner briefing for tomorrow and dinner tonight is outside on the salon deck: roast lamb shoulder, interesting side dishes, a very nice corn/crab soup, and DB and THB skip dessert for chocolate in the room.