The End of One Chapter Marks the Start of Another...

Well, my adventures in Indonesia have come to a close. I have made a wealth of friends, and many underwater adventures. I fell so easily into the comfortable Indonesian lifestyle that when the time came for me to embark on my next journey, I felt a little bit like I was being wrenched out of one life and thrown back into another.

Coming home has been most aptly described as bittersweet. I'm glad to see my family and friends, but at the same time I miss my new family in Indonesia. A big thanks to Lembeh Resort for making me feel like one of your own! I'm thankful to all the great friends I made and I hope to see you all again soon! I will come back to Indonesia, I promise...

The following photos and stories are from a few of my most memorable dives here at Lembeh resort.

The famous blue ring octopus, found at Serena Besar by Paulus. Such a beautiful animal... and quick!! A little too fast for me to catch in focus but at least I have proof!

 I found this Reef Octopus hanging out one day on the newest artificial structure (that I helped build) on the house reef. For once I can thank my forgetfulness, because if I hadn't forgotten my scissors down there I wouldn't have found him at all.

On this particular dive I had asked Oksin (one of the great dive guides) to come help me move around some particularly large sponges, all of which were in much shallower water. I brought my bailout bottle like I always do when diving on the house reef, but I confess I maybe broke one or two of dive safety rules on this one..(shh, don't tell anyone:) ) I left Oksin up in 30' to keep working on tying up the sponges while I bounced down to get my scissors. When I saw the octopus, I bounced back up to grab Oksin and bounced down again to show him. The octo disappeared, but Oksin quickly found two Pegasus Sea Moths and two Robust Ghost Pipefish in the same area! I tell you, the guides at Lembeh all have amazing eyes.

One of my most favorite dives and one of the most fun, TK3 is a modest divesite of black sand. However, in my opinion it is the best place to find Hairy Frogfish, if you are so inclined.
During my stay, I met a wonderful couple from Switzerland. Jose and his wife were in the middle of an amazing five week vacation throughout Indonesia. During his stay at Lembeh, he and Ronald (another trustworthy guide with eagle eyes) would head out everyday on the private boat so Jose could get footage for the documentary he was working on. Jose's wife often came, but on that particular day she decided to stay behind. That day was also the annual dive staff picnic, so Nofry, a guide from one of the adjacent resorts came along as a freelance guide for the afternoon portion. On that gorgeous Friday morning, Ronald, Jose, Nofry, and myself rolled out out to TK3. Ronald and Jose jumped in by themselves to do their thing, which left Nofry and me to do ours. What followed was the coolest and my number one favorite dive at Lembeh. It wasn't extreme in time or depth by any means, but without the presence of guests we were free to roam around and find what there was to find. I have a suspicion that animals are less likely to be out when there are more divers around, but whatever the case may be, we found tons of animals. Not one, but two hairy frogfish, one of which seemed to be fruitlessly chasing around a much larger flatfish.. and by chasing I mean slowly walking in circles. The flatfish seemed only slightly annoyed by the frogfish rather than threatened, and when the frogfish got too close to his face he'd simply turn away. We saw snake eels, and garden eels, flying gurnards and mantis shrimp. On two particularly close clumps of sponge, a pregnant seahorse was hanging out, and on the other was a tiger shrimp. By a big clump of anemones, Nofry pointed out several Bangai Cardinalfish with mouths full of babies, and a big orange frogfish hanging out by a log nearby. For a finishing touch, when we got back to the boat, there were several squid hanging out all along the mooring line. What an amazing dive!


To my Indonesian family in Lembeh, I'd like to thank Dimpy, Paulus, Andy, Oksin, Bertho, Ronald, Jerry, Ramly, Opo, Novi, Fandy, Abner, Jamal, Tommy, Steny, Yori, Benya, Joni, Wella, Ona, Rafly, Nixon, Dedi, Deky P, Deky W, Helen, Julz, Achid, Andre, Arifin, Dewa, Roy, Lovi, Jacksil, Diane, Johannes, Maspri, Vanda, Fitri, Denai, Linda, Alvian, Amy, Olive, Nofry, Onjong, and everyone else who made my stay so special and memorable. Special thanks to Glen, Widya, Hergen and Kerri for making this amazing journey possible! I hope to come back and see you all in the near future.
Much Love,
Madison Bromel

mapping the house reef

A few days ago I went out with Oksin to do some more mapping of the house reef, and while I was fussing around, he took some candid shots!
Mapping is pretty straightforward and easy to do. First, you take a finger spool and mark it out (it helps if the line is dry enough to to mark with a pen.. this part takes a little bit of pre-planning) I marked my reel in ten foot increments, with the first 20 feet having one foot increment markings as well.
The next part is easier to do with two people, but still feasible by yourself. Have one person stay stationary at one object and have the other swim with the line in hand to the next object. That person can take a compass bearing from the first object to the second, while the second person counts the tick marks on the spool as they reel it back up. For objects that are farther apart, or even just past visibility range, its best if the stationary person keeps the reel, to avoid tangling the line. If the object is farther away than you can see, the swimmer can give a couple of tugs on the line to let the other person know when to start reeling in. For these situations its beneficial to have a preliminary idea of the layout so you have a basic idea where to find everything. :)
As you go along mapping, take a slate and sketch out each object, writing down the compass bearing, length of reel used and a line following the course of the reel. It also helps to take note of the depth at each object as well.
Then, when you get back onto dry land, redraw your underwater map on a piece of paper with a pencil, ruler, and your compass. To make things easier, orient the paper to follow the course of the map ( for example, the house reef generally runs at 30 degrees parallel to land, so I oriented the paper to 30 degrees and drew the map around that).

There you have it, a finished map!