Time Slipping Away

Hello fellow divers,

I had hoped to give you a rundown on everything we have been doing since the last blog, but we, and Secret Sea, have been so busy; the time just keeps slipping away. Plus we just spent a fun week with our house guests, Kerri Bingham and Hergen Spalink, managers of Lembeh Divers, www.lembehresort.com. Check out Kerri and Herg’s personal website, www.gotmuck.com. While here Herg helped me set up a Facebook page. Thanks, Herg! Actually, I’m not sure I should be thanking him. Our internet connection is so slow that it takes almost 10 minutes for me to accept someone as a friend.

Tomorrow, we are off to Komodo for a Secret Sea charter. We’ll be on one of our favorite boats, Damai, www.dive-damai.com, for an 11 night itinerary. We are very excited about this trip. One of our guests is Gladys Howard, owner of Pirate’s Point resort on Little Cayman Island, www.piratespointresort.com. Gladys has been a friend for years, but she was our dear departed friend Larry Smith’s “second mother”. Larry found the resort for Gladys 1986 and worked there for a number of years before coming to Indonesia. Sadly, Gladys never dived in Indonesia with Larry. We feel honored she has chosen us to show her around one of Larry’s favorite places, Komodo National Park. After our trip she is off to visit another place Larry made famous, the Lembeh Straits.

We return to Bali on August 27 and, 10 days later, we'll fly to Sorong. We will be heading to Cendrawashi Bay (CB). CB is on the backside of the Bird’s Head peninsula of Papua. CB, along with Triton Bay and Raja Ampat, comprise the area known as the Bird’s Head Seascape (BHS). Some of you have probably visited Triton Bay, and more of you have been to Raja Ampat; but few of you, including us, have ever been to CB. This trip is actually a survey, and part of our job as consultants for Conservation International, www.conservation.org. The results of this survey, along with information from Triton Bay, will be included in the revised edition of our guidebook, Diving Indonesia’s Raja Ampat. The new guidebook, will encompass the entire BHS, and it should be in print late next year or early 2012.

Another purpose of this survey is to create a new itinerary for liveaboards. CB has great promise, including WWII wrecks, resident populations of whale sharks and dugongs, vibrant pristine reefs, and some of the best topside scenery in all of Indonesia. We have reports of endless white sand beaches and, located just west of CB, are largest leatherback turtle nesting beaches in the South Pacific. Sounds like a place I want to dive! Look for a full report on our return.

Until then...Best Fishes,

Burt and Maurine