Impressions from Wakatobi
I have not had an idea of what to write about as we have been moving from city to atoll to reef to a dive resort, which is where we are now.
Last week, a Swedish boat with two 10 and 11-year-old girls and a 6-year-old boy invited us over for dinner. The kids didn’t speak much English so we played card games and pillow fights where Lukie attempted to suffocate me. When we arrived Mum and Dad got out of the dingy with Lukie. I was about to get out too when I noticed a moving rope on the petrol tank.
It was a sea snake! It slithered off the tank into the water at the bottom of the dingy. I picked it up and put it in the bailer. They are very poisonous but their mouths are so small that they can only bite the skin in between your fingers, so that’s why I didn’t hold it.
“What does it feel like Matias?” asked Lukie as I dropped it in the water.
“Like a sea snake,” I answered as I was getting out. It felt like a rough rubber hose.
The Swedish boat had bought a big trevally that we had for dinner after Lukie had decided I was not a soft toy that he could strangle. This also happened to be the first time I have tasted cuttlefish. A woman from another boat had brought a curry to the party. I ate the curry, it tasted good. Afterwards, my mum asked me if I liked the cuttlefish and I said:
“What cuttlefish?” The cuttlefish was in the curry.
The day after the dinner, I did a try dive with my mum. I had to put on my BCD, buoyancy compensation device, and roll backwards into the water from the dinghy. I was wearing my short wetsuit so as soon as I went down to 5 metres I was freezing.
The day after, me and my mum did another 2 dives, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. On both I was wearing a longer wet suit, but on the second when I went to 11 metres I was a bit cold.
Under the water were some bamboo platforms where we practised some skills like taking off my mask and recovering my regulator so I could get it back if it fell out of my mouth. We did a tour around the area and had a spade fish follow us around. When I waved my finger at it, it started to chase my finger until the last second where it turned away and started to do fishy things again.
We also saw some nudibranchs that we had never seen before.
I like diving because you get more time in the water than when snorkelling, so you can get a better look at things.
In the afternoon a local in a boat tried to sell us a fish. We already had some so we said no thanks. Then he offered us some crabs. They were half a foot long and still alive so we decided they could be dinner.
After thanking the local fisherman and giving him some money, we put them in a bag which we tied to the boat and dropped into the water. My Dad cooked them at lunch time, and at dinner I tried some. I am not a big fan of crab or crayfish, and I was not expecting it to be so cold. I would have liked them more if they were warm.
The day before yesterday I did my last dive. On the dive we did no skills and saw lots of sea snakes. When we got out Lukie said:
“Matias did you see all those sea snakes? One zoomed out from the water and nearly hit me!”
I nodded and unclipped my dive gear. Lukie asked my mum whether he could have a go so a second later he was under the water looking for more snakes.
Yesterday a local in a boat came up to us. He offered us a bucket of water. Inside were a bunch of lobster tails.
“Wait here,” I told him.
I went to Dad and said:
“A local want to sell us lobster tails.”
My dad looked puzzled and went to see.
“Ah, mantis shrimps!” he said.
I went inside to Mum. “What are manta shrimps?”
Mantis shrimps are fat shrimps the size of your foot with eyes and legs like a praying mantis, just only more scared-looking than evil-looking.
In the evening we had some other people over. Lukie and I were mainly playing in my room while they were there, and when they were leaving I asked: “What did we do with the mantis shrimp?”
“We had it for dinner, did you not get any?” my Dad said.
“Aw, I wanted some!” said Lukie, a little bit annoyed.
Apparently, it tasted like lobster.
SV Bob The Cat 