1st Voyage to Halmahera, Raja Ampat...

Since our 1st Voyage in April 2006, MV Odyssea 1 has quickly made a name for herself for her chic but extremely functional design with generous amount of space (so generous that jokingly ask what she has to do with all this space). Boldly and confidently, We took Odyssea 1 across moluccas sea from Manado and Lembeh into Pulau Mayu, Ternate, Tidore, Hiri and Halamahera within 4 weeks of her first official cruise.

Usual construction teething issues and getting good constructive feedback from the guests that we had over the previous cruises around manado, bangka, and lembeh for some fantastic diving. You might not know that odyssea 1 is also affectionally known as Popolulu Baby, her name during constructing her. Yes, Odyssea 1 is constructed from scratch. It was not bought brand new, used and refurbished - We built it ourselves with the skillfull and hardworking group of carpenters from the northern islands of Sangihe. Conceptualised, designed and implemented by TM, Jim, Andrew, Carlene, Martinus and Priscilla.

We began our journey in December 2004 when building location was decided and the search for the correct length of wooden for the keel was found... After the orginal super structure concept was accepted, the carpenters (which we eventually named the group "Artelier Hans & Rekan Rekan") with master carpenter Hans get on laying the ground work to - boldy put, create history for Manado...

to be continued...

INDONESIA’S BEST - LEMBEH STRAITS

A tiny area, wedged between the very north-eastern tip of Sulawesi and Lembeh Island has a reputation as probably the best “muck-diving” location in the world - Having the biggest concentration of the most weird and wonderful creatures imaginable.

Words & Photography by Bob Whorton

INDONESIA’S BEST - LEMBEH STRAITS

A great trip was anticipated, as friends old and new assembled from various global locations for some serious ‘critter’ photography, that was now becoming an annual event. Check dives were immediately had on the amazing house reef at the base of the black sandy beach, resulting in a dozen smiling faces, refreshed after the long journey.

Muckstravaganza!

As our vessel came to an idle, the sky turned orange above us, the sun rose over the shoulder of Lembeh’s volcanic hills driving away the last of the night’s stars and highlighting the full extent of the busy straits. The narrow waterway buzzed amid the hustle of the early morning boat traffic as hundreds of small narrow boats traversed the busy ½ km channel, ferrying Lembehan’s optimistically anticipating a day’s labour at the mainland port at Bitung; following the arrival of numerous freighters.


This predominantly Christian area of Northern Sulawesi has a definite African feel to it: The optimum priority, eaking a living and trying to stay above the poverty induced reality on the outskirts of an extensive empire. Tourism has become an important asset to the local economy providing the ever important benefits of local employment and revenue.

The dive sites along the strait are concentrated north of Bitung around the many bays, coves and vertical sandstone promontories.

Taster

We all had our own agendas regarding what we wanted to see but the guides promised to show us their favourite spots and the weirdest of creatures. At that point we couldn’t really appreciate even a small part of what we actually would get to see. However, looking down into the merky depths of the channel didn’t actually inspire the newcomers too much.

Within 10 minutes of the briefing the captain had reversed near one such cliff face that would give the newcomers their first taste of things to come. I was pleasantly surprised that the visibility was in excess of 15m allowing adequate perception along the flat base of the steep grey wall that gave it the ambiance of a quarry.

Within the first moments we were looking at pygmy sea horses (hippocampus bargibanti), perched atop a small gorgonian at the base of the wall...

Then followed 90 minutes of pure indulgence, as we swam from critter, to critter...

Every few seconds a tap on the tank would rally us to ogle at some other strange creature such as scorpionfish and waspfish so adept at ambush and camouflage that their outline was almost impossible to see.


Exquisite nudibranchs ranging in size from fingernail width to that of a hand roamed the sand and rocks. Clown Frogfish in 3 colours, two ghost pipefish, comet wrasse and hatchet shrimp gathered in an area of just a few metres.

We ascended the cliff wall we were confronted by the most amazing spectacle of colour imaginable – thousands of orange, blue, yellow and white seasquirts hung like grapes with small soft corals and yellow cup corals below the small clefts, together with a vivid collection of sponges. In amongst the rubbish floating at the surface we spotted a juvenile batfish mimicking a dead leaf – Remarkable adaptation.

A great start we thought, but during the next 40-odd dives our appreciation of this remarkable location would just get better, and better.

Frogfish, Frogfish, Frogfish

Jahir is a large black sandy bay just a little further north split into two sites, here the guides had promised us a frogfish or two... The seabed was more gently sloped with several small patches of coral growth and the reduced visibility. The guide’s ability really became apparent in these conditions, and before long he had pointed out a pair of Harlequin ghost pipefish nestling between the arms of a white crinoid – very pretty too, but by the end of the dive we had seen 6 different types!
Painted, giant and three types of striated frogfish (including a hairy) awaited our gaze during the dive, plus the appearance of the illusive ‘Lembeh Frogfish’ trying to pick off young cardinal fish
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‘Police Pier’ ‘Zarena’ and ‘Nudi Retreat’ realised some beautiful frogfish that included the Clown and the very rare ‘Warty Frogfish”, the biggest of these males was just 10 cm long.

‘Teluk’ we were then led to an area of flat coral and sponge growth that would best be described as a colourful vegetable patch. However, the crops found here were an abundance of small frogfish ranging in colour from bright yellow through orange to a deep red – pretty amazing stuff as one can often search in vain for these masters of disguise.

“Hairball” is a broad site similar to Teluk with hardly any raised areas to speak of, just black volcanic sand, but with numerous patches of non-rooted plant growth resembling ‘hairballs. In contrast the frogfish here ranged from tiny red, white & black males to an extremely large dirty-brown female, but the best find was a pair of ‘weedy’ frogfish trekking across the sand in search of a quiet place to mate – probably in the shelter of the many fallen trees littering the shallower parts of the site.

October is mating season for frogfish at Lembeh, and on several occasions we saw large egg-bound females pursued by one or more of the tiny males during the late afternoons. Mating takes place after dark in an area selected by the female. The female then signals approachability by raising her tail, then one or more males rushes in to do the business – then scarpers. This is a dangerous time to be a male frogfish – an inch to far forward and they end up a meal for the female. One female; even in the height of passion was seen to dispatch several cardinal fish – women eh!!!
Different females had different ideas on after care once the eggs were laid – stuck to a tree or put in a shallow hole which was hurriedly covered. As most frogfish generally adapt their colouration when tiny it wasn’t unusual to see different coloured males attending the same orgy.

The Weirdest and most wonderful

Apart from frogfish Lembeh has the probably the most concentrated collection of ‘strange’ critters that can be found anywhere in the world. The regions devil fish for example looked every bit like a pile of discarded bones - partially buried in the grey volcanic sand. When startled it displays colourful tail and pectoral fins, and a high dorsal fin of lethal spines that stands erect – not the thing to kneel upon!
The species of lionfish in this particular area astonished us too with small intermixed communities around the larger mounds of coral, together with lots of small cuttlefish and schooling dwarf porcupine fish, these having the most incredible green or red jewel-like eye structure, looking like small galaxies suspended in space.

Probably the most diverse site for marine life was undoubtedly Jahir and warranted several revisits to try and squeeze it all in. Over four dives we were amazed to find an incredible quota that included Cockatoo wasp fish, 20 cm sea horses, crocodile eels, Ambon Scorpionfish, large pipefish and a plethora of frogfish and a large mimic octopus.

Oddball Rally
At 8m the ‘Hairball’s’ sandy slope flattened out - here, in just a few minutes we had dragonets, leaf fish and flounder but then came along the good stuff. A rattle rallied us once more this time to ogle at an unusual ‘hermit’ octopus, but instead of a shell this individual had utilised a plastic container, which two arms held firmly covering its body. Then we were summoned to admire a more unusual octopus – The incredible ‘Wonder Puss’. This beasty, employing similar tactics to the larger mimic; aped a starfish, allowing the group in very close before deciding to slip into its tiny tube-like lair in the sand. Then from the corner of my eye appeared a sizeable yellow sea horse swam towards an area of large coral formations... amazing sight.

Investigating the area it was quickly apparent that the shallow corals provided a nursery environment for juvenile fish such as barramundi and sweetlips. All over this area hundreds of anemone supported a host of symbiotic pals like the huge ‘Panda’ anemone fish and the incredibly beautiful ‘Banghai Cardinal fish’, the latter massing in their hundreds. This species was artificially introduced to Lembeh from Banghai Island some time ago. The consequences of this have seen the traditional Anemonefish evicted from many anemones throughout Lembeh.

Incidentally, the reason so many nocturnal predatory fish reside in the Lembeh area is due to the abundance of numerous species of cardinal fish that use the bays for shelter and hunting themselves.

Return
As the boat left Lembeh and headed north towards Bangka Island next years return was already being chiselled into stone. The 36 dives here had gone so quickly due to the constant spectacle confronting us at every available moment. The diving here is easy and almost care-free, the most difficult thing was trying to recall and identify each and every type of beast for the log books... Joining the growing numbers of “Lembeholic’s Anonymous” – Unashamedly infectious and intoxicating, we spent an average of 415 minutes per day UW!

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For More of my Photos, please visit my photo album

Anyone interested in joining a Lembeholic’s photo cruise by live aboard please contact me by email: drbob.whorton@btinternet.com