AGGRESSOR'S "FALL INTO SAVINGS"
Save up to $700 per person!
Incredible Diving, from the Pacific to the Caribbean, at an Incredible Price!

As our 25th Anniversary Celebration draws to an end, Aggressor Fleet would like to offer our valued guests one last blockbuster special!
Most of their boats are offering savings starting at $700 per person on
designated weeks ..... too many to list here! Call me for details. Airfare, of course, is additional!

NO other discounts apply.

See the latest offer from Peter Hughes Diving and book now!

Blue Hole Bargains on Sun Dancer II

Starting at $1895 Per Person - Save $700!

Cabins on Sun Dancer II are $1895 or $2095 when traveling between Sept. 5, 2009 and Dec. 26, 2009! That is a $700 per person savings! It's a total bargain price - no special weeks and few restrictions.

AIR PACIFIC HAS JUST EXTENDED THEIR FABULOUS FIJI FARE SALE!
Tickets now must be booked by July 14, 2009 with travel completed by December 30, 2009.
Call me NOW for a Fantastic Fiji Getaway!

AIR PACIFIC has just announced a fantastic fare sale to Fiji! Tickets must be issued by June 30, 2009 with travel completed by December 30, 2009. Airfare rate (before taxes) is $565 per person! There are LOTS of great hotels with special DEALS available so call me and we'll get you to Fiji!

Sadly, all good things must come to an end...we've packed up our dive and photo gear and settled up our bills...it must be time to head home!

We did, however, have 2 fantastic last dives yesterday. We all loved California Dreaming with its breathtaking soft corals. That reef rivals some of the best we've seen from Fiji with yellows, oranges, reds, purples, lavendar and white soft corals. Lots of schooling fish as well as the little stuff. Ronald found us a tiny, less than 2-in boxer crab with eggs....those are the kinds of dives we dream about when we're in the middle of a Michigan snowstorm!

After we finished diving, we took a Resort boat over to Bitung Port and visited a local zoo. It's not very big but it's very clean and well organized. We saw the tiny tarsis monkeys up close and personal, lots of different indigenous beautiful birds, monkeys, baboons, a python snake & a few cobra safely distant in a cage..the really weird looking babi rusa which is a pig with horns! We also got to visit with some of the local children and watch them playing football and just being kids. They love to get their pictures taken so it's fun to show them the photos afterwards and hear the giggles.

We're all packed up and just waiting for the staff to load our stuff in the boat. This staff is the BEST in the world, bar none! From the fabulous dive guides and boatmen to the lovely staff at the Reception desk and in the dining room. The cooks are fantastic and cater to every taste and diet. We couldn't ask for a better land-based experience and we all can't wait to come back again.....join us next time! From Lembeh Resort sampa jumpa lagi (see you next time!)

Terima kasih, everyone......

Yesterday's 3rd dive was a number of "firsts" for us....first time we saw all 3 phases of a ribbon eel, first time to actually see the yellow female and lastly and the most fun....first time to ever see a free-swimming ribbon eel! Ribbon eels are about the thickness of a pencil and we generally see anywhere from 1" to 8" of them poking out of their holes in the sand/rubble. Yesterday we were on a mission to see a yellow one. Ribbon eels start out black as juveniles, turn blue with a yellow face and a yellow stripe down their backs as adult males and when the need for reproduction arises, one of the males turns all yellow and becomes a female! We've been told that the females mate once and then after giving birth, die, so they are not commonly seen. Well, yesterday we saw the black, then the blue, then the yellow and then the BANGING started......Abner was rattling his rattle, Bill was pulling on my fins....I knew something awesome had been found!

Bob managed to be "in the right place at the right time"! He found a free-swimming yellow phase ribbon eel out in the open. This one was between SIX & EIGHT FEET long! And if you imagine the Olympic gymnasts with their ribbon routines, that's what it's like watching a ribbon eel swim....they coil and stretch just like the gymnastic ribbons! We all whooped and high-fived each other when it finally decided to find a hole and duck into it.

We also saw two great frogfish on that dive, one was a very unusual orange color so here's a shot of that one as well.

Our diving is now winding down...we have only two dives left on this trip. They've all been fantastic but some are always more memorable than others and the ribbon eel dive rates right up there.

After we finish diving today, it's time to try and dry everything out. We're also going across the Straits to a small local zoo this afternoon. It's hard to believe we've been here 12 days...where do the days go??

Last night's dive was at one of our favorite dive sites, Nudi Falls and it didn't disappoint us! Lots of critters foraging in the sand for dinner including all kinds of decorator crabs, shrimp, pipefish & even a red frogfish paddling his way about the reef! It's a spectacular wall with loads of colorful sponges and corals and at night when you shine your lights on the reef you see red eyes everywhere from all the shrimp jumping about. 70 minutes is a normal night dive in Lembeh...that's how long the flashlights and aiming lights can hold out...after that, it's dark so it's time to surface.

We had a most interesting 2nd dive today as well. We went a bit farther north in the Straits and the dive sites have more corals than some of the closer sites. We saw the largest patch of beautiful, healthy staghorn coral we've ever seen and it was loaded with schools of at least six types of beautiful cardinal fish, the most striking was yellow with blue eyes! Then we encountered something we've never seen before....a feeding Triton shell. He was almost finished eating a blue sea star. Their usual diet is crown-of-thorns sea stars but we've only seen one crown-of-thorns here on this trip (which is a GOOD thing), so they are obviously searching for other types of sea stars to munch on....it was a huge animal....probably 2-1/2 feet long by 1-1/2 feet tall so it was an impressive shell to say the least. Thank goodness we saw it with its animal still living and prospering, not in a shell shop somewhere!

We're winding down our diving....we only have one more full day tomorrow and then our last 2 dives on Friday morning. We've seen some amazing creatures but there are STILL things on our "check list" that haven't been checked off....maybe in the next 6 dives, but if not - there's always next time!