IASAS & MS Art

With ISKL hosting the IASAS basketball championship, Gabi's teacher, Ms. Baxter thought that perhaps they could mix some art with supporting the Panther Pride.  How fun to see Gabi doing some sketching while the Panthers were in action.

An evening at the MPO

We had a delightful evening at the MPO; not surprisingly, there were quite a few other ISKL teachers there.  Truly amazing the quality of music.  Every time we go, we wonder, why don't we do this more often? 

Gabi's Grade 4 Camp

Here is the video from Gabi's Grade 4 Camp experience.  Fun times!

Sights and Sounds from Diving

After five wonderful days of diving in Bali, it is fun to look back at a few snippets of some of the dives, remembering the beauty from under the sea. 

Final Dive. . .Lepoh Bay

For the final dive of our trip, I went to Lepoh Bay.  It was a delightful dive with sights of an octopus, leaffish, scorpionfish and a few baby sharks under the coral tables.  Truly beautiful.  

Enjoying the Blue Moon

There was a nice break between the morning and afternoon dive, and it was fun to hang around by the pool. 

Did we mention how delicious the food was at the Blue Moon?  What a nice location for our last few days of holiday!

Doug's Morning Dive

The rest of the family had enough diving, but Doug thought that another day of diving might be worth it.  It was some pretty spectacular diving.  This was dive #53.  All the trash that had been around from yesterday was gone.  The fish and coral might have been the best of the week.  An Octopus, Nubibranches.  As soon as we hit the point, there was some amazingly strong current - so we turned around.  Good indication to see all the fish going against the current.

Can you spot an octopus in one of the photos below? 

Rania's First Dive - Japanese Shipwreck

What a stunning location for a first dive.  Wow!  After a bit of difficulty or uncertainty about her ears clearing, Rania was clearly quite comfortable in the water. 

Rania's First Dive (Video)

What an amazing experience, as Rania got to go with the instructor on a Bubbles Course, diving the Japanese Shipwreck.  What a stunning location for her first dive.  Here is the video.

Liberty Shipwreck

One of the main reasons for going to Amed and diving was to visit the Liberty Shipwreck.  We had to leave a bit early and make the drive (about an hour) north to the wreck site.  The USS Liberty was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in 1945, just before the end of the war.  It called for help and then was towed to shore, where it sat on the beach for the next nearly two decades.

In 1963, an eathquake, trigered by the volcanic eruption from Agung (the big volcano on Bali) caused the liberty to fall just off shore.  There are not very many places where you can scuba dive a WWII wreck, where part of the shipwreck is only at about 5m.  It goes down to 30+ in parts.

What an eerie, mystical look. Though the ship is falling apart a bit, it was quite the amazing sight.  What an experience.  For the morning, Rania and I snorkeled above while Reeve, Gabi and Tracy when with Melissa, our dive master for the experience.

Liberty Shipwreck Redux

This time Doug had the chance to go with Gabi & Reeve for the dive through the Liberty Shipwreck.  We did lots of swim throughs as we saw the wreck.  What a truly eerie and mystical feel being underwater with a huge WWII warship.  So, so, so, so cool. 

Crazy Triggerfish Dive

For the latter dive, Tracy again went with Rania while Reeve, Gabi and Doug ended up in a crazy encounter with a very, VERY aggressive triggerfish.  We were at about 18m, and the divemaster wanted to go deeper.  I said, "no" we should stay shallow due to having younger divers.  What I did not know (but now know) is that the very territorial triggerfish keeps attacking you in a cone all the way to the surface - so the only way to avoid him was to go in a slightly deeper circle around the territory.

The fish started attacking Jimmy, then Gabi's fin, then I tried to get between the kids and the fish - continually trying to show my fins, which it repeatedly attacked.  You could sure see the fish.  At the moment, it was okay; as we were leaving, I realized how out of breath I was and how much energy I'd exerted.  With quite a bit of panic at 18- 20m, trying to catch my breath, I realized I just needed to take care of myself.  Yikes!  It was, to date, the most panic I've had on a dive.  We did end up seeing an octopus - but the triggerfish was the big memory.  Jimmy, our dive master fought the fish on our way back as we kept Jimmy between us and the crazy triggerfish.  Later we heard the story of how our divemaster, Jimmy had once almost been knocked unconscious on a dive by a triggerfish which gouged a big portion out of his head.  Scary! 

An Expensive Loss - Diving the Pyramids

For the morning dive, we all took boats out to the Pyramids and did a bit of a drift along some scenic sections of the reef.  Rania and I had a delightful time snorkeling in the shadow of the volcano.

Unfortunately, it was quite an expensive dive.  The picture below shows the last time we saw Tracy's diamond.  Somehow when getting her gear off - or perhaps during the afternoon snorkel, one of the prongs on the diamond ring broke.  Like All the Light We Cannot See, this gem is back as part of the ocean.  It was very sad to notice it later in the afternoon - seeing the empty prong.  It's also a sad, but good reminder of what matters in life - and material possessions are far down the list. 

 

Quite a view

Unfortunately, Reeve was filling sick, so he stayed home at the hotel and relaxed.  Tracy and Gabi went diving at the Japanese Shipwreck in the morning while Rania and I did some snorkeling.  The dreaded Bali trash was all over the water (thankfully it cleared out perfectly for the next day). In ht eafternoon Gabi & I went diving to Lepoh Bay, where we saw two small sharks under the coral tables, a blue spotted ray and a turtle.  Some beautiful coral, and Gabi and I both amnaged to brush up against some hydrozoans, which stung for a few hours. 

The view from our hotel and its little pool sure won't cause us too much pain!