This morning was Easter Sunday and the Papuans being very religious observed this as a day of rest. Even fishing on a Sunday is frowned upon, so unfortunately I couldn’t film the kids spearfishing as I had hoped. However Michael had a great idea, taking the kids for rides on the ‘Ski Donut’ towed behind the tender! This was a big hit, the kids loved it and it was great to watch… their must have been 15 or 20 children on the tender all laughing like crazy, and another two or three on the donut holding on for dear life!

Thrills and spills on the donut.

Yesterday’s night dive was cool; the first thing I saw was a little Octopus about 80mm (2.5 inches) long. I filmed him moving over the bottom and diving into the sand in search of prey. He came over to checkout the camera and crawled right across the lens! There were lots of baby Blue-spotted rays out feeding over the sand, as well as Fire urchins, Cone shells, small Flatheads, and a beautiful Spiny ‘Troschel’s Murex. This has a cream coloured, spiral shell covered in long spines, probably for protection against predatory fish. There are many beautiful shells in the Indo-pacific, and it is always a bonus on a dive to pick up an interesting or colourful unoccupied shell, however live shells, or those being used as homes by Hermit crabs should be left where they are. 

A quick summary for those who don’t already know; shells are actually the external skeleton of a soft bodied animal known as a Mollusc. Molluscs can be divided into three basic categories; Gastropods, (snail-type shells); Bivalves, (two shells joined by a hinge); and Cephalopods, (Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish, Nautilus). In addition to these three widely recognised categories there a lot more classes of Molluscs that we won't go into here. Nudibranchs, and Sea Hares are an example that many divers would be familiar with.

Anyway; shells are primarily made from calcium and a protein called conchiolin, secreted in layers to give maximum strength. Growth occurs at the outside edge of the shell, and the basic shape of the shell stays the same, just the size increasing as the new layer is added. The colour patterns we find so pleasing to the eye are a result of the shell’s growth being both rhythmic and continuous. It never ceases to amaze me what a huge diversity of shapes, colours, and sizes molluscs come in. I still haven’t been given a satisfactory answer as to why many shells are so brightly coloured. After all they only have rudimentary eyes (barring cephalopods), so it can’t be for reasons of recognition or territorial displays. If you know the answer to this one please let me know!

Today I was on deck duty, which involves seeing the tenders are fuelled and ready, generally keeping the boat tidy, assisting with docking and anchoring, wash-downs and other cleaning. There is always something that needs doing, and today it was polishing the stainless rails and fittings. There is a lot of stainless on a boat like the STARSHIP, and as it is constantly getting covered in salt spray, it always needs cleaning! Living aboard a boat you start to appreciate just how much constant maintenance there is, the marine environment is pretty harsh on gear!

Around midday we moved on to Hibwa Island, which was basically a large expanse of shallow reef. I thought it was pretty generous calling the small projection at one end an ‘island’ myself! On the way we came across a small pod of False Killer whales, so other than Trevor and Peo, the crew transferred to the tender to follow along and see if we could snorkel with them. False Killer’s are a glossy black, relatively small whale with a slender head and body, and a rounded beak. They travel in pods and belong to the Odontaceti, that is the ‘toothed’ whales, which are able to echo-locate. This was particularly obvious when we slipped into the water with them as you could hear/ feel their whistles and clicks … unfortunately we didn’t get to see them underwater, other than Enrico, who got a brief glimpse!

By the time we had had enough, STARSHIP was on the horizon, so we held on to anything we could, and Michael treated us to a fast trip to rendezvous at Hibwa Island. When we were nearly at the island we ran across a shallow section of the reef and had to do some very careful maneuvering to get the tender back into deeper water without damaging her props or hull on the coral!

Dressed for success - Lou, Enrico, Michael and Dave ready 
to splash into another night dive