Dinner was lamb, greens, mashed squash and an amazing chocolate custard tart in coconut shells.

Saturday, March 29, 2003
We stayed at the same site overnight and were told in the morning that it is really Kilibob's Knob, known for its shark feed site - they just call it Fu Man Chu for the night dive so people aren't afraid of diving it. So we dove Kilibob's twice - once as a regular dive and again as a shark feed which I sat out. The first dive was nice although the current was pretty strong. Digger found boxer crabs, and Josie found a small lion fish. George, the 5 foot baracuda that lives here was present under the boat.

We steamed for about four hours, heading away from the Father's volcano range. The skies never cleared enough to get a really nice shot of them like Mark did last year.

Around 2:30 we moored at Kimbe Island Bommie and did a quick dive there. Quick, because it was so deep - the top of the reef was around 80 feet, so our bottom time was brief.

A half hour later, we were back in the boat and on our way again. We did a late afternoon dive at Inglis Shoals - I had a nice close grey reef shark encounter at about 50 feet while everyone else was down around 90 feet. He gave me some close passes - about 5 feet - and then decided I wasn't going to produce anything worth eating. There were several nice anemones, popcorn shrimp, stonefish. It was getting dark when I got out and the seas were getting choppy. Just after I got on board, the skies opened up and we had a serious rainstorm for a couple of hours.

Dinner was Indian - chicken tandoori, beef curry, cucumbers in yogurt, papadams. Wonderful - Jayne really worked hard all afternoon to put it together.

Sunday, March 30, 2003
The AC in my cabin still isn't working - I was so uncomfortable that I opened the hallway door to let some air in.

We dove Inglis Shoals again in the morning, then went to South Emma. Nice dive but the viz isn't as good near Kimbe as it was up at Father's Reef where we've spent the last few days. We moved to a great reef - Anne Sophie's - and did 2 dives there. The reef top is shallow and surgy, but between 50 and 75 feet, the viz improved and we saw a ton of stuff.

Between dives, Suzanne and I spent our 20 minutes tanning on the "Lido Deck" - the sun is so hot here it is very easy to get burned even with some cloud cover.

I finished reading "Around the World in Eighty Days" - what a great story. I started reading "Treasure Island" - appropriately enough because today is Captain Jack's birthday. Fred decided to decorate the salon with balloons for the occasion. Dinner was grilled fish and veggies with a Mississippi Mud Cake for dessert. The crew had a nice PNG coffeetable book for Jack that we all signed.

Monday, March 31, 2003
Our first dive was at Bradford Shoals. We dove there last year - a deep dive with some nice schools of barracuda but not much else so I decided to wait until the next dive. We went to Susan's Reef - Digger found some incredible stuff: pygmy seahorse, frog fish, and a shrimp that no one had seen before. There were also some great sea fans and sea whips.

For our last dive we moved a short distance further down the reef to Christine's Reef. There, Josie found the one fish I had really wanted to see - a Mandarin Fish. They are just beautiful, brilliant red, green, and blue in an almost paisley pattern. They are nocturnal and hide in the coral rubble during the day - one has to pick up pieces of rubble to look for them, and they swim back under as soon as they can. To make matters worse, they are only about an inch long! Neither Mark nor Gary were around to get a picture (the one to the left is from last year), but Rob was there so hopefully his will turn out.

Alas - the diving was done! We showered, had lunch and the crew rinsed our gear and began putting it out to dry. By early afternoon we were steaming back to Walindi. Most of us read and relaxed; Fred began drinking and had finished at least 3 bottles of wine by the time we met at 6:00 for "nibbles and drinks" before going ashore for dinner.

All the guests and crew went onshore for dinner where the local elementary school kids came to do a "sing sing" for us. They are really cute and we donated money for school supplies.

Alan Raabe, the owner of Febrina, had just returned from a dive show in Russia, so he joined the group for dinner, which was a barbecue with steak, chicken, fish, salads and side dishes. Fred made an amazing come-back from his afternoon drunken haze to read a lengthy poem he wrote for the crew - it was really very good and the crew appreciated it.

Tuesday, April 1, 2003
Everyone slept in a little, then rose for breakfast and began the packing process. Email addresses were exchanged and we said our goodbyes to the crew and Suzanne and Ed, who are staying on at Walindi for two more days.

The bags were loaded and they drove us to the airport, including Captain Jack who is going home to Cairns for a week before going to Palau to bring another dive boat - the Star Dancer - to PNG. We were on a bigger plane - a Dash 8 - but with all our gear plus the Port Moresby Police Band and their instruments, it was pretty amazing that we got off the ground.

We landed in Moresby and said goodbye to Fred, as well as Lynn and Neil who are staying in Moresby until Thursday morning. Rob, Rosie, Jack, and the three of us got our bags and went to the International terminal to check in for the only International flight of the däy. The scanner wasn't working so security consisted of opening our checked bags and telling them we had dive gear inside.

After checking in, we had five hours to kill and wanted to get some lunch so we took a cab to the Airways hotel. It was quite modern and well appointed. We left our carryons with the front desk and went up to the poolside restaurant and got a table overlooking the airport.

As we sat there, in walked Lynn and Neil, so they joined us for lunch. Afterwards, they showed us their room - quite nice and reasonable - we said goodbyes again and went in search of a jewelry shop/gold refinery that Suzanne told us about. After 20 minutes of random driving on the part of the cabbie, we finally found it. It was no great shakes and we headed back to the airport.

We paid our departure tax, waited until the departure lounge opened, and cleared immigration. They have redesigned the security screening area and actually have a working scanner. We boarded and the plane left a little early for Cairns. There was the most beautiful scarlet red sunset above the clouds - I tried to get a photo of it, but couldn't do it justice.

There were no other flights at the International Terminal at all when we arrived in Cairns, and our bags came up quickly. Rob and Rosie were trying to make a tight connection to Melbourne so they grabbed their luggage and made a dash for it. We changed some money, said goodbye to Jack and caught cabs to the Cairns International Hotel.

Gary found this place on the internet and it was just great - we're going to let him do all the hotel selections from now on. We checked in, freshened up, and went next door to a terrific Japanese restaurant called Yakagen. We had crab shumai, assorted sushi, lobster miso soup, chili mud crab, and lobster tempura. With chilled sake. It was really delicious.

Wednesday, April 2, 2003

I woke up and went for a quick walk near the harbor. The residence ship, The World, is docked there. It would be nice to be able to spend a little more time here, but we have a full day of travel ahead of us. Back to the hotel to repack and head back to the airport. We checked in and did a little shopping while we waited.

We flew to Brisbane and transferred to the International Terminal. We had some lunch and Mark and Gary did a little duty free shopping. I found the Qantas Lounge and got them to agree to let us all sit in the lounge until our flight - Qantas partners with British Air, so I could use my BA status.

The flight from Brisbane to Singapore is 7 1/2 hours long. I read, slept and tasted some of the worst airline food I have ever had. I mean, shockingly bad.

We arrived a little early in Singapore, cleared immigration, waited a long time for our bags, changed money and looked for cabs. Our dive gear is so bulky and heavy that we usually have to take two cabs. Mark saw a sign for the London Cab Company that offers a flat rate to town using real London taxis. Our enthusiastic driver, Mr. Ong, assured us that it would all fit in one car, and somehow he got all the bags and the three of us in it. Good thinking Mark!

We arrived at the Oriental Hotel and were taken up to the Club Floor where an efficient team of concierges gave us tall glasses of juice and checked us in. I got to my room around 9:30, ordered some crab/lobster bisque and spicy shrimp from room service, took a shower, and went to sleep.

Thursday, April 3, 2003
I really like staying here - the rooms are spacious and well-appointed, and have views of the harbor. We all met for breakfast in the Club Lounge - they do a nice Champagne breakfast service with fruit, cereals, eggs cooked to order, ham, bacon, sausage, an assortment of cheeses and breads, and steamed dim sum. It was very nice, and we ate looking out over the city.

We caught a cab to the cable car station and took the cable car over to Sentosa. We went to the butterfly park - an aviary with hundreds of butterflies in it - then did the "Images of Singapore" tour.