Advertisement
Published: September 18th 2010
Just boarded the Embaku
Heading out for great adventures.This is it
Heading west from Labuan Bajo, Flores
September 12th
This morning Eric and I woke up with a bit of a hangover and sort of stumbled down to the dock in Labuan Bajo on Flores. Our six day liveaboard cruise around Komodo has been planned for a while and it is hopefully going to be the most expensive thing I will do on this trip. It is possible to do day-trips from Labuan Bajo to the various dive spots around Komodo and that is the cheaper option but since Eric and I have been aiming at this ever since we left Sumatra we wanted it to be perfect. As Eric said a second ago: "This is definetely the right decision. Pretty hard to have any regrets".
It is futile to fully describe the setting and the state of mind that this has triggered but I will try to do both anyway. Everybody else cancelled so Eric and I have this beautiful 30 meter boat and four man crew to ourselves. We boarded an hour ago and are now sitting on the front deck of the boat with blue sky above and paradise all around us. Everywhere
Embaku beauty
Everwhere I looked on the Embaku there were these small perfections pleasing the eye. I look there is a little slice of absolute perfection. The colors on the boat, the immense blue surrounding us, the piercing beaches and heartbreakingly green islands.
This is my
banyon tree. As we were heading out of the harbour in Labuan Bajo it hit me like a sledgehammer. This is it. My only obligation to myself and this existence is to pursue places like this and collect emotions like the ones I have now. There is nothing else worth mentioning and there certainly doesn't have to be. The onslaught of harmony in a moment and place like this is the only sense of purpose I will ever need. I am happy and truly at peace! There may be millions of ways of getting there but the destination remains the same.
The strange thing is that there are splitseconds of monumental sadness mixed into this and that is why I am writing right now. I have been so stupid. The time and energy I have spent convincing myself that throwing all my drive and ambitions at working for CCI would give me a true sense of purpose and sense of a self is truly disheartening. I've been such
a fool for so long. Being fully dedicated to a job is fine. Thinking that it is in fact a reflection of who I am is ridiculous. It is also a bit ironic that I thought that this trip would be a good way of finding answers to some of my open questions when obviously it is a significant answer in itself.
Oh, now I have to go diving 😊 I forgot that. We haven't even embarked yet on why we are even here. The Big Blue beneath is looking promising.
Manta Point
September 15th
Describing dives is kind of pointless. Even when trying my best to convey the experience I suppose it will never really become truly interesting to anybody else. Still the dive this morning was so amazing that I will try anyway for no other reason than to capture the moment for myself.
When I got up on deck this morning still half asleep there was a marlin jumping out of the water repeatedly. It's a big torpedo-like killing machine with a long beek and a nice way to wake up. The currents over our next dive site looked fierce from the surface
Shadows on Embaku
Happiness is the only reasonable emotion in a place like this. and Herry was already out scouting. It is called Manta Point and lies just east of Komodo. We did see one Manta
Manta a couple of days ago at Pulau Toko Toko to the north but this is supposedly one of the best spots to see these otherworldly creatures. Manta rays can become almost 7 meters wide from wingtip to wingtip and there have been reports of ones reaching up to 9 meters. They have characteristic spooky looking lobes extending forward from the head that helps guiding the plankton into their mouths and they move like underwater dragons flying through the water. Herry did however warn us that this is not the best season and gave us a fifty-fifty chance of seing them during this dive. We went down on the northern end of Manta Point and went quickly down to the bottom. The current was ripping. We drifted over the sandy bottom for about fifteen minutes at about the same speed that I would be able to run on land. It is quite fun to drift like that. You basically just have to use your body to steer clear of the occasional rocks and corals and try to catch some
Ropes
Although the Embaku has two masts and sails to go with them they are hardly ever used. As Herry said: "It would require ten people". A damn shame though. glimpses of the fishes as you are hurdling past them. I couldn't help wondering why there are even fish living in such a torrent. They can easily keep their position in the water but it is obviously hard work and for example the anemone fish (like Nemo from the movie) live in this current permanently.
We did however not see a whole lot while drifting but towards the end I did catch a glimpse of a very large marbled ray (about a couple of meters wide) further up on the reef but I couldn't remain stationary without working too hard and Eric and Herry were getting smaller and smaller in front of me. After a couple of minutes more Herry went a bit to the right of the channel and we found a place with much weaker current. Finallly a bit of peace and quiet and a chance to get our bearings. The marbled ray I had just seen came down on our right-hand side and now Eric and Herry spotted it as well. And then I heard the familiar sound of Herry banging his metal stick on his tank. This means that there is something worth looking at
Divemaster
Herry, our DM, in all his glory! He made sure that the dives were very challenging but also extremely rewarding. Thanks for the rides! and following his pointing arm I saw it. A big black manta out in the channel moving slowly towards us. It remained stationary for a while out there flying through the current. They are so majestic yet powerful. This one was quite big so 3 or 4 meters between the wingtips that are gracefully propelling it forwards. After a minute or so it disappeared into the channel but only to be replaced by another white manta. The bottom is all of a sudden littered with whitetip reef sharks resting and a couple of turtles appear out of nowhere. One of them a green sea turtle and the other one something else and slightly bigger. The manta has disappeared in the same direction as the first one and the turtles quickly follow suit but after having hovered over a beautifully patterned puffer fish of almost a meter in length for a while two more mantas approach from the south and getting even closer than the first ones. Within the frame of my mask I can see both of them and a green sea turtle and a resting whitetip and I have to remind myself to breathe. I can't remember how long
Sunset Eric
I love this shot of Eric. Not only is he glowing in the setting sun but all of his main interests during the cruise are represented. The dry bag since we were diving, camera within reach, cigarettes at hand and the dreamy look and laid back posture was really all that it was about. In the background is Toko Toko Island and the two massive ripples further forward are the Castle and Crystal rock dive sites. All three were amazing. these four friends stayed like this but it felt like an eternity.
We did however have only a bit of no-deco time left at this depth and had to head upwards slowly so we started swimming up the reef. Plenty of fish everywhere and then the fifth manta came towards us heading down the reef from the east and towards the channel. This one was clearly aiming straight at us with a giant trevally right beneath it. Such a trevally is itself almost a meter long but it looked tiny beneath its living shelter. They both passed right in front up us with the wingtip of the manta less than half a meter from my mask. I was so tempted to reach out my arm so that it would have high-fived me with its massive wing but I suppresed the urge and instead just tried to take as many mental photographs as I could and feeling the gentle puff of water from its wings. They look almost lazy with every movement happening in apparent slowmotion but their sheer size means that they are fast as hell and that they can easily swim into the currents that makes us into
And this is it
This is what Eric is looking at in the photo above. The Embaku is the boat on the right. mere floatsams. And then it was gone and we headed further up for our safety stop at five meters. The top of the pinnacle was bathed in rays of sun from the surface and there was fish in every possible color all around us. I can't think of beauty anywhere that surpasses what can be found in places like this underwater. I could actually begin feel my breathing getting harder which indicates that my tank was getting dangerously close to empty so after the safety stop I surfaced quickly with enough air to fill the BCD and started laughing and singing like a madman.
By far the most exhillerating dive I've done, but most of the other dives here have been almost just as good.
On the Embaku
Life onboard the
Embaku is simple. We do four dives a day including one night dive and in between we relax, read, take photographs, sleep and eat. We had expected to get six days of nothing but Nasi Goreng Ekan (fried rice with fish) but Faysal is making one miracle meal and delicious snack after another. I certainly didn't expect to get one of the best steaks of my
The Embaku
Our beautiful home for 6 days. She had everything we could want and a fantastic playground for a couple of guys feeling like kids again. Oh, btw, a couple of girls would have been great. life on board and the state of mind that this type of existence is creating seems to enhance every single sensation and experience as well.
The sunsets are spectacular. Falling asleep under countless stars on the upper deck while trying to keep the exhausted body awake for as long as possible is divine. The awe-inspiring views of the pristine islands and beaches all aound us are breathtaking. Watching the occasional group of dolphins cruise by the boat simple extends the sense of being here. We spend most of the time in more or less absolute silence. It is great to have Eric to share it all with but most of the time no words are really necessary or adequate to describe this entire experience. I just feel privileged to be here and everyone reading this should begin to make arrangements that will bring you here as well. A few of you simply can't but for most the biggest step is to make the decision. Everything following that is easy.
The Blue Dragon
We have however also been reminded how cruel this place can be. A couple of days ago we anchored next to the Blue Dragon, another
The Blue Dragon
The Blue Dragon blocked one of our sunsets, but made up for it by being a very nice foreground. Two days later she was gone beneath the waves. liveaboard, with a large group of Japanese divers on board. They sailed towards the southern tip of Komodo and while trying to navigate through a narrow channel the current forced the ship onto a rock and it
sank quickly. Fortunately everybody is back safely in Labuan Bajo now but the rumour during the day was that one person had died and that did affect all of us. The boat is gone though and so is the equipment and the passengers belongings but all things considered that doesn't really matter.
Anders
Anders has been very present over the last week or so. Over the years he has been taking up less and less mental space but ever since I told Eric about him while we were in Tulamben on Bali he has been with me many times. I realized some time ago that on the 9th of June I became older than him and overtaking an older brother in that way obviously feels unnatural. I am pretty sure that it was also on that exact day that it was made public at CCI that I was quitting the company. It was only a few days later that I broke up
Mamma dragon
This cute little thing was expanding her burrow. At least two meters long you make sure to keep your distance. with Pia and although all of this was a pure coincidence that doesn't mean that it isn't significant. On many of the dives I have done over the past few days I have had problems getting rid of the thought of how terrible it is that he never got to experience this and how I am somehow responsible for trying to experience some of it for him.
North of Rinca
September 16th
Our final day on the Embaku is coming to an end. Tomorrow morning we will head back to Labuan Bajo and Eric and I still haven't really figured out what to do next except that we at some point want to travel east over Flores. It has been a very nice day. We started out with a couple of good dives and then headed to Rinca Island. It is about the same size as Komodo and these are the only two places where the famous Komodo Dragons live. It has been a lifelong dream for Eric to see these massive creatures, but I was quite frankly a bit disappointed. Yes, we did see them and we did stumble upon a female digging a hole for her
Near death experience
Two turkey-like birds were fighting over - I don't know - who was most stupid, I guess and got very, very close to this dragon. You can see one of the birds fleeing in the background. Eric took this one. eggs, but most of the ones that we saw where just resting underneath the kitchen at the ranger station and although the ranger promised us that they do not feed them it seems like quite a coincidence that they are hanging out right there. Rinca was a beautifully desolate place and you could tell that only a rugged creature like the dragons would be able to rule there. They feed on dear, wild turkey like birds, water buffalos and the occasional monkey and that pretty much sums up the larger animals on the island.
Afterwards we sailed to a couple of mangrove islands and we went kayaking around them and everything was perfect again. We have started using the boat and its facilities as a playground today and jumped into the water from the upper deck and have climbed up the masts. The masts were also where we headed for the last show of the day. As the sun set thousands upon thousands of big flying foxes took off from the two islands and headed towards the bigger islands while Herry was playing guitar at the stern of the boat. A perfect conclusion to a perfect trip.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.253s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 21; qc: 90; dbt: 0.1028s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Jens Maigaard
non-member comment
So great
Hi again Sounds absolutely wonderful. Must go again :-) If you at one point feel like actually making the trip eastwards, I can recommend a couple of days in Bajawa, about a half of the way across... very pleasant and quiet, beautifully set in the hills and complete with bizarra local cultural practices. Enjoy Jens