9 December 2009 I woke up to a nice porthole view of a small islet called Suanggi. Red Pindito dingy takes off for Suanggi Islet diving The birds were all over the islet - brown boobies, red footed boobies, frigate birds . . . Yogi wondered if there were tropic birds but didn’t [...]
8 December 2009 We finally got on board the lovely Pindito and an old friend of Yogi's Edi Frommenwiler, Pindito owner and Raja Ampat pioneer made it to be with us with his brand new RED camera and Gates housing. Our first and second dives were in Ambon in what is famously known as Twilight Zone. It [...]
24 October 2009 We spent a most interesting day with Simone Gerritsen and her kids from her school Kehidupan Anda or "Your Life." The goal of Project “Kehidupan Anda” is to improve the education of the children in the village Tongkeina and the surrounding villages. Three year old school Kehidupan Anda's colorful facade We visited [...]
20 - 24 October 2009 Off we went with the tireless Simone Gerritsen of Thalassa Dive Center in Manado to explore Bunaken and the surrounding islands as well as the under-appreciated mainland Manado. We knew to expect the steep wall dives of Bunaken National Park and the beautiful coral cover of Bunaken's shallow reefs. Manado Tua beside [...]
18 October 2009 About 15 years ago, Yogi dove and dove and dove for two straight months with Murex Dive Resort and Liveaboard in North Sulawesi. During this period, he contracted dengue fever and got a special visit from Murex's very owner, the gentle, soft-spoken Dr. Batuna. His verdict was, "You'll live." So when Yogi indeed survived [...]
15 - 17 October 2009 A relatively unknown dive destination not far from Lembeh is slowly getting its share of the limelight. Buyat Bay is about five hours from Manado located south of Lembeh. It used to be a gold mining operation that shut down recently. Now the mining facility's skeleton staff are seeing a [...]
23 September – 4 October 2009 As much as we appreciate the diversity of creatures crawling about Lembeh Strait, we appreciated more our guides who led us to them. Ronald giving a dive brief. All guides ended each brief with "thank you for your attention, enjoy your dive!" And we did! Every dive! [...]
23 September - 4 October 2009 An insanely fantastic artist friend of ours by the name of Robert Strachan has, for years, barked out an order everytime we went on a dive journey. "Will you photograph fish faces for me? Not side view. Not quarter view. I want full frontal in-your-face fish faces!" Robert speaks in either bold or [...]
23 September - 4 October 2009 What the heck is muck? We have been diving in the Lembeh muck for the past 12 days and finding it so interesting we could hardly tear ourselves away from it. We must be mad, you'd think. How can diving silt and sand be interesting? Well, it is interesting because in seemingly [...]
23 September 2009 Our second dive today is in Jahir I, named after the one of the pioneer Indonesian dive guides, Jahir! It was spectacular. I'm running out of superlatives here and pretty soon, I'm going to sound boring. Too much of !!!!! Third dive was in Airbajo I. Here are some pictures to show [...]
