The next 3 day Jaya adventure departed from Labuan Bajo harbour to balmy weather with returning guests Rob, Chris, Jennie, Finn, Nick, Alamin, Lars, Oddmund, Eimar and David and new guests Omar and Rich. Instructors Jo, Vinnty, Diego and DMTs Linda, Stefano and Calle were also aboard, ready for adventure in the Komodo national park.
The first night started with a stunning sunset and snorkel at Sebayor Island and the diving schedule started the next day. We dived first at Tatawa Besar and then at little sister, Tatawa Kecil followed by a final dive of the day at Batu Bolong. The next dives on the trip took in Karang Makassar, Crystal Rock, Castle Rock with a night muck dive at Wainilu on the last evening of the trip.
Marine life was diverse as always and creatures big and small wowed the divers from an all black manta, white tips, black tips, bumpheads, giant trevally, tuna, hawksbill and green turtles, and an eagle ray, to the tiniest of tiny pygmy seahorse (bargabanti hippocampus) and many strange critters on the night dive like flounders, flying gurnards, papuan cuttlefish. Vinnty even found 3 frogfish on one dive – good eyes Vinnty.
There were many causes for celebration on this Komodo Liveaboard. Chris celebrated his birthday on the third night and super cook Joss whipped him up a birthday cake to make it special. In fact most of the day, divers could be found humming Stevie Wonder’s ‘Happy Birthday’ both above and below the water and Chris even blew out his pretend birthday candles underwater. Congratulations Chris, glad we could share it with you.
In addition, eager students, Rich and Oddmund, both became advanced divers on the trip and spent evenings and dives learning about deep diving, fish identification and many other topics.
Diego introduced the team to the role-play murder game ‘Werewolf’ on the second evening and many a lynching ensued as villagers tried to rid the werewolves from the town of ‘Chihuahua’. Unfortunately this time the werewolves conquered. On the final night of the trip, Eimear introduced a simple word association game with few rules, such as you cannot use words beginning with the letters C and S. It seemed very simple, but everyone slipped up frequently, causing many giggles. Rich deserves a special mention for being unable to pick words without Cs and Ss. Thanks Rich!
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