Dive ~ me ~ nuts: Diving Pulau Weh ... second trip

I decided this return trip to satisfy my hunger for the beautiful reefs, abundance of marine life and adrenalin rush I missed so much. I love but hate the strong currents ... love it for the presence of pelagics but hate it for not being able to shoot good videos.

Singapore - Medan - Banda Aceh

This time round I went via the Medan route with a detour to Lake Toba on my return journey. Even though it cost more but everything went smoothly. No flight delays, missed flights, re-timing etc.. It was swift flying with Silkair (Singapore-Medan) and Garuda (Medan-Banda Aceh). I will do that again for my next trip.

Masjid Raya Baiturrahman - Banda Aceh

Highland view of Pulau Weh

Iboih Beach

Met a young English lady, Bryone on the ferry and we shared a car and paid IDR100,000 to Iboih beach. She was the one who actually bargained from IDR150,000!

While we stopped to take some pictures, now I realized how beautiful this island is!

When I reached Erick's Green House, I went up to the terrace to say hello to Erick and the other guests. I was told all the guesthouses were full during that weekend due to the Chinese New Year holiday. The room with hot shower were occupied and I can only move in four days later. I was freezing in cold shower for the next few nights after diving !

Me vs Honeycomb Moray

Diving

My first day we dived Pantee Pernateung, Batu Tokong and Arus Palee but the visibility was bad (15m). I was quite disappointed. It was difficult to capture images and it was cold ... 26 degrees Celsius and no hot shower in the room ... sad. We anticipate the visibility will improve over the next few days ... luckily I have the whole week ahead!

Indeed the visibility got much better in the next two days I could shoot some schooling fishes, though not so clear but it was good enough. I was glad I encounter many different kind of morays ... white-eyed, blue-eyed, white spotted, giant, honeycomb, different kinds of lionfish and scorpionfish, octopus, cuttlefish and nudibranch during this trip. Pulau Weh is indeed the capital for moray eels. During our night dive at Gapang House Reef, we found Robust Ghost pipe fish, ghost pipe fish and twin-spotted lionfish for the first time since I started diving. Of course, I felt great that this trip has been fruitful to me, at least.

This is the first time shooting with a strobe. I was struggling with the settings of my new camera switching between photos and videos, adjusting the strobe power, exchanging lens, putting on and removing red filters (i'm using two filters - one for the wide angle lens and the other for the main housing). At times, I had to hold on to one lens with one hand while shooting the next object. What a mess! Fortunately, some of my creation are still acceptable, at least for a serious amateur photographer/videographer. Looking my pictures, it is obvious that the strobe was not positioned aiming at the object, either way out or creating much shadows. I believe it will take some time to be able to get used to using a strobe, changing settings during the dive and shooting both pictures and videos. Not easy man!