Night Diving! (and More Rescue)
Location: Kalong (Pink Beach), Indonesia
Good morning from Komodo! I did wake up this morning at 7 am for our usual breakfast in the cockpit at 7:30 am. We picked up anchor and moved to our next spot just off of the infamous pink beach. While Charlie, Isaac, and Andrew worked hard to get us moored, Julian (head chef), Emily (sous), and Grace (sous) made fruit and granola for breakfast. We’ve been going crazy with the fruit lately since we didn’t have much from passage; for example, everyone ate mangos last night for dinner. AKA the best mango of my entire life. After breakfast, the first dive group got ready to go while Susie, Cornelia, Skye, and I blasted music and had a little dance party in the galley, because what’s Argo without a little faffing and music… Our dive site today was the cove/reef just out front of our anchorage spot.
The first group saw some cool coral, stingrays, eels, and turtles. While everyone was getting ready for lunch, we heard “JACK FELL OVERBOARD, I CAN’T FIND HIM!!!” Sophie, Skye, and Jack were all victims of a Rescue 7 scenario, and we had to act quickly. Lots of people jumped in the water to help the “unconscious divers” and “panicked divers,” while others delegated jobs on Argo. All in all, it was a super fun scenario; Noelle and Jen absolutely crushed it. After the scenario, we all had an amazing lunch before the second group went diving! Grace, Josie, Emily, and I were in a dive group together and saw some insane marine life!
In the first couple of minutes underwater, we spotted two turtles and lots of fish. The coral was so vibrant, full of life, and flowed with the current. We basically saw the whole cast of Nemo swimming throughout an anemone. I saw some pufferfish, blue spotted rays, and another turtle sleeping under a coral feeding station. Julian and Charlie swear they saw a spotted eagle ray, and no one believes them because we are all just insanely jealous. After diving, we had some time to chill and play a game called salad bowl (similar to charades) before spotting a pod of dolphins jumping just off our starboard side! A group of us rushed to put on our fins and masks and swam quickly over to them; unfortunately, they moved to a different spot that was a little too far from us, but it was still cool to see them. On the way back,k we got stung by little jellies/stinging cells,s so we were all screaming, and that kickstarted another rescue scenario:s Sammy fell “unconscious,” Isaac panicked and fell off the bow, and Charlie was a lost diver. While Everett and Claire were getting kitted up to save Charlie, Sammy was being rescued by Noelle and Addy, and I went to rescue Isaac. It was super chaotic, and a couple of masks were lost, so Everett and Claire went down and found them! They were absolute troopers and did an amazing job. After dinner and a squeeze, the first dive group got ready, because they were going NIGHT DIVING!!! The second group is going tomorrow night, which will be fun. I'm super excited for that. But, like always, we ended the day with a beautiful sunset and an amazing starry night sky. I can’t wait to do it all over again tomorrow!
P.S Dad, Mom, and Parker, I love you guys endlessly, and I’m missing you like crazy <3