Day 2

Day 2. We woke up and had a breakfast of fried rice and a fried egg (they really like to fry things on this island), then we loaded up on our fishing boat and headed out for a day of snorkeling! And much to my chagrin, I realized that the driver of our boat was none other than our island’s guard/boss/police/police boss. If he was with us, then WHO WAS WATCHING OUR STUFF?! Oh, well…

First, they anchored the boat in a shallow part of the ocean where there was lots of coral. We were disappointed to find that most of the coral was pretty dead looking. Out a little farther from the boat was a large patch of very shallow water with white sand below it. A few of us swam over that way and just floated around looking for sand dollars and other creatures that like to hang out in sandy spots. One friend swam a little farther beyond the sand and discovered some AMAZING coral. The ocean floor dropped down to about 20 feet, and there were TOWERS of live coral that came almost all the way to the surface of the water with hundreds of fish and other animals swimming around them. He and I explored around that area for quite awhile. Unfortunately, we were about half a kilometer from the boat by this point, which is where my underwater camera was. I hadn’t expected to find such beautiful coral there, so I have no pictures to document it as I didn’t feel like swimming to the boat and then back out.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I am beginning to get over my irrational fear of coral. I still have a healthy respect for it, and I would prefer it to be at least 6 feet away from me at all times, but I no longer hyperventilate in my snorkel when I am close to it. So that’s good news!!

Resting on the boat.

After we had our fill of floating around at that spot, we got back on the boat and ate a boxed lunch of rice and green beans. Pity the seasick ones among us… As we drove to our next destination, we passed a large ship that we had also seen the night before from our beach. It was anchored not far from our island, and as we passed it, we asked the police boss driving our boat about it. He said that it was an Indonesian Navy ship and that they come out to the islands periodically to do training exercises. While they’re there, they also go around to all the uninhabited islands and check for terrorist cells hiding out. I never thought of it before, but with the tens of thousands of uninhabited islands in Indonesia, it would be the perfect hiding place for anyone up to no good!

The Navy ship

One of the many uninhabited islands of Karimunjawa.

Our next stop was back near our own Menjangan island, but on the far side from our bungalows. We dropped anchor offshore and jumped off to swim. The water was much deeper here, and there wasn’t as much coral to see, so we mostly just dove off the boat, some more creatively than others. Some of us swam for awhile, but something invisible kept stinging us sharply. The police-boss-boat-driver explained that those are jellyfish no bigger than a human hair. They are nearly invisible in the water, but they feel like a papercut when they sting you! He eventually jumped off the boat and started using a small net to catch fish which we later ate for dinner. He also found a very large oyster that he threw onto our boat. We happened to have a very large knife with us (don’t ask), so we busted that sucker open so we could look for a pearl inside. No such luck, but one of the guys and I promptly proceeded to “explore” its insides. Since my hands were covered in oyster guts, I have no pictures of this. It was really interesting trying to identify the parts. We had cut it all up before we realized that Mr. Police guy intended to eat it. Then we felt really bad for messing up his catch, but he looked at our work and told us we’d actually done a very good job butchering it. He told us which parts to keep and which to throw back. So hooray for us butchering an oyster properly without even knowing it!

After that stop, we headed back to our bungalows to shower and change for dinner. After dinner, we headed to the other side to watch the sunset again. It wasn’t QUITE as good as the day before, but still beautiful!