divEr 44
suddenly underwater macro life was
transformed beyond what I ever thought
possible. I was even able to spot my own
sheep!
So here is how a Woolf hunts her sheep.
In an otherwise fairly barren, gravelly, grey
underwater volcanic landscape, look for a
tatty green leaf about 5cm in diameter,
then see if it possesses a white dot about
the size of a full stop.
Take a photograph to determine
whether or not the dot is a “thing” and, if
it is, you will need to establish which is the
head end. This could easily involve taking
another couple of shots before you’re sure.
Then you can fire away until you’re
satisfied with the result, before moving on
to another leaf.
Sometimes, you can actually find one
leaf with two nudibranchs on it, as I was
lucky enough to do. And they’re not
always white; exotic versions also come in
crazy colours such as dark green with
purple tips, or blue and yellow, or with
dreadlocks.
It soon became apparent that great care
is needed with the Hydrotac lenses, which
can be dislodged far too easily, especially
if mishandled accidentally by an
uninformed dive-boat helper. It remains a
mystery to me anyway how they could
ever be expected to stay in place in a dive-
mask with a single drop of water.
It’s surprising how the brain adapts,
however, and you can manage with justone lens if you have to. I would say that
they’re good for an emergency, but next
time I’ll invest in a proper optical mask.T
HE LIBERTYWRECKnever
disappoints even though, at almost
any time of day, there will be dozens of
divers, mostly with poor – or zero –
buoyancy skills, either lying on the wreck
or bumping into other people.
Surprisingly, despite all that, the wreck
still seems to be in pretty good shape all
these years down the line. I can remember
two years ago doing a very early-morning
dive while it was still dark, and there were
only three bumphead parrotfish,
“sleeping” in one of the compartments,
a tenth of the numbers that might have
been expected a few years earlier.
This time, however, there were probably
a couple of dozen fish, and they seemedRight: Two Sean the Sheep
nudibranchs share a leaf.Far right: Scorpionfish.Right: Goby in a bottle.Far right: Diver with
fan coral.Below: Blenny, also in a
bottle.and places like Scuba Seraya had
no choice but to close.
However, it is now open again
and we’re here again in April
2019 as if nothing has happened
in between.
A few days into our visit,
however, we watched with
amusement at breakfast the
room-cleaners busily dusting off
the plants and bushes outside
our rooms – Agung had been
spewing ash all night.
Our suits at the dive-centre
looked as if they were suffering
from a severe bout of dandruff. My room-
mate and I couldn’t help but make
strategic escape plans in the event of A, a
tsunami and, B, a volcanic eruption, both
of which would involve running very
quickly, at short notice, in opposite
directions.
Because of my deteriorating eyesight, in
common with many divers of a certain
age, the Sean the Sheep nudibranch had so
far managed to elude me, but on this trip,
having discovered the innovation of
Hydrotac lenses, I was determined that
this omission would be a thing of the past.
Armed with my new bifocal mask,divErNEt.com