Jessica’s First Day in Lembeh

October 10, 2010
For some yet undeciphered set of reasons the 12-kilometer strait that separates the small palm-lined island of Lembeh from the sprawling Indonesian landmass of Sulawesi attracts the most eye-popping collection of marine wildlife ever discovered. Ghost pipefishes, pygmy seahorses, hairy frogfish, blue-ringed, mimic and wunderpus octopus, flamboyant cuttlefish, harlequin shrimp and nudibranchs by the kirbillons – these are just a few of the storybook animals that have kept us returning on annual visits for more than a decade.

Lembeh Cottage’s Home on the Strait

After listening to us rave about the Lembeh’s amazing animals for a couple of years, Jessica Hatsselt decides to accompany us to the other side of the world. An enthusiastic critter hunter in her home waters of Florida and the wider Caribbean, Lembeh represent Jessica’s first venture in the species-rich hunting grounds of the tropical Western Pacific.

Bleary eyed and wobbly after 36 hours of travel, we sleepwalk our way off our Silk Air flight in the coastal city of Manado in northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. Following a mercifully quick visa purchase and customs check we totter out of the terminal behind a cartload of gear. In an instant, frayed spirits lift as greeting erupt form old friends Cary and Jim Yanny, owners of Eco Divers and Lembeh Cottages, and three of their doting staff. The warm welcome sets the tone for yet another classic stay in the fable land of critter hunting and friends.

The Lembeh Cottages are new, opened for business in 2009. After managing the hotel and diving concession at the Strait’s Kungkugan Bay Resort the previous five years, Jim and Cary made the decision to strike out on their own. With extensive insight into the business of keeping divers happy and safe, honed first in Bermuda and later in the Red Sea as partners in world-renowned Emperor Divers, then, in a more recent epic, Eco-Divers at Kima Bajo in Manado and Lembeh, the innovative couple has recently raised the bar with their revolutionary land-cottage/live-aboard resort concept.

Pulling into the cottage compound located within a mountainside residential community of the Strait’s port city of Bitung is like old home week, even for Jessica on her first visit. Familiar smiles on familiar faces pore into the sunshine from every door. Toting welcome drinks and catching up on news, we’re escorted to our stately accommodations where luggage awaits. The next morning our cottage hostess taps a wakeup on the door. During a leisurely breakfast of fresh squeezed juice and eggs to order we select dinner from a list of intriguing choices. The ingredients for our selections are purchased fresh each morning and prepared to perfection while we spend our days happily splashing around the Strait.

With dive gear already loaded by eight, SUVs take us on a ten-minute drive down the slope to Police Pier where waiting launches transport us the Nautica, the mother ship moored in the lee of a jungled island. The Nautica provides a convenient floating platform of amenities with an enclosed stateroom and galley equipped with ample electric outlet for charging and computers. Besides an expansive, well-organized dive deck, there is plenty of additional space upstairs to relax in the sun or shade between dives.

The diving is arranged the way it should be. At capacity, the Nautica, carries sixteen, with a maximum of eight guests in each of the two fast, canvas-covered launches. And even better, divers are further divided into fours, with each small group escorted by their own naturalist guide (In this case four of the best Lembeh has to offer, which means four of the best in the world). Jessica, accompanied by Iwan, joins a couple from California in launch one. With a wave she is off.

In launch two, Anna, Cary and I join Detmon, a veteran critter finder and legend in the Strait. In less than five minutes we tumble backwards into a calm bay ringed by a black sand beach, coconut palms, and fishing boats. To my experienced eyes the dark, sand slope below, pocked with algal tufts and village trash, epitomizes the best muck diving in the world. However to a first timer the gloomy seascape appears deceptively sterile and grossly unappealing. That’s before the guides go into action, and it doesn’t typically take long before the show begins.

With a rap on the tank Detmon signals us down to an Ambon scorpionfish. The three-inch predator, all fins and frills, blends into the shadowy terrain like an apparition. Minutes later we pass a giant frogfish the size of a football balanced on a mooring rope. At sixty feet Detmon strikes Lembeh gold, pointing out a mimic octopus gliding across the sand. Returning up the slope, we spook a colony of wispy sand divers that disappear beneath the sand in powdery puffs. As a finale, under our boat Anna spies a bright orange T-bar nudibranch with hitchhiking emperor shrimp nestled next to its gills.

Ambon Scorpionfish

Giant Frogfish

Mimic Octopus

Sand Diver

T-bar Nudibranch with Emperor Shrimp

Back aboard the Nautica soaking up the warmth of an after-dive shower Anna points toward the late arrival of Jessica’s skiff. Even from a distance, we can see her beaming like a kid with a lollipop. Never one to tempter emotions, Jessica bound aboard in fit of gyrations before stopping in mid-jig throwing her arms skyward and shouting to the heavens, “I’m not going home again. I’m simply not going home, ever.” Giggling she falls into Anna’s arms.

Finally out of her wetsuit and calm, in a relative sense, Anna asks what she saw. “Hell, I don’t know”, she blurts out. “You tell me, you’re the ones who write all those ID books.”

“What did we see Iwan?”

Iwan steps forward wearing a grin as broad as Jessica’s. “Let’s see, down deep on the seafan, the tiny pink things were pygmy seahorses. Then under the ledge, remember the two white and blue animals eating a sea star those were Harlequin Shrimp.”

“And the last thing, the weird thing at the end flashing the colors, what on earth was that?” Jessica interrupts between gulps of tea and bites of muffin.

“A Flamboyant Cuttlefish.”

Pygmy Seahorse

Harlequin Shrimp

Flamboyant Cuttlefish

Jessica and Iwan

“When do we dive again, someone check my computer? I’m sure we’ve been up well over an hour already. I don’t want to miss a minute, not a one minute you hear.” she demands in jest.

Although over-the-top, Jessica’s first dive success wasn’t totally unexpected thanks to the skill of Lembeh dive guides. To survive life in open terrain without ready access to hiding holes natural selection has taken muck animals to delightful extremes. Their masterful utilization of camouflage, mimicry, and symbioses makes finding them one of the most challenging games in the sea. With eyes attuned to the nuances of nature, experience guides are able to sort out even the most cryptic critters from their surroundings. On her second dive Jessica adds an Ornate Ghost Pipefish to her growing list of otherworldly encounters, followed by a spectacular pair of young Helmut Grunards before her group wins the big deal of the day with a rare Blue-ringed Octopus sighting.

Ornate Ghostpipefish

Juvenile Helmut Flying Gurnard

Blue-ringed Octopus

Back aboard the Nautica after our last dive the extent of our good fortune is not lost on anyone. Even by Lembeh standards, it has been a banner day with a half dozen celebrity animal encounters. Although still giddy with luck, jet lag begins to supersede adrenalin and the comfort of our cottage beckons. In less than an hour we’re showered and snug with bare feet propped up in cool comfort. While sipping drinks, nibbling treats and waiting for dinner we relive our first day’s adventures, and best reveling in the knowledge that our visit at Lembeh Cottages has just begun.

Nautica’s Crew with Friends After a Happy Day Critter Hunting in the Strait

© 2011 – 2012, New World Publications Inc. All rights reserved.
The images and text in Marine Life Blog, unless otherwise noted, are the property of New World Publications, Inc. You may not copy entire posts or any of the images. The YouTube videos have been created to allow embedding. Quotes, using a few lines or a paragraph may be used, as long as credit is given or a link back to this blog is used.