We had the diving deck behind with all the tanks neatly arranged in the middle, sides for back-rolled entry to the sea, three steps up to the middle area that is empty and neat for lounging around and to put our stuff, with nice side sittings between railing where you can swing your legs and enjoying the view of the sea (which I did 80% of my time on the boat), wooden staircase (that become shelves when not in use) that lead to rooftop, our favorite place to be when we came back from whole day diving to enjoy sunset, a kitchen, quite a proper kitchen where Sukono prepared coffee, teas, mango and watermelon for us, quite a proper toilet overlooking the sea with tinted window, captain area where they have mini library and day bed, and front area where I can sit facing the sea and the edge where I can freely dangled both of my legs and played ‘I’m the king of the world’ while scanning the surface for big stuffs. I will go as far as saying it’s the best dive boat that I’ve ever been, of course discounting those that had the facility for full liveonboard like Tarata and Kaleebso. My portable water container was useless in this trip, because I could just rinse in the toilet after every dives. Great.
Anyway, one thing that I observe, from fellow mild OCD to another mild OCD, Thomas seemed to go every extend to ensure that the boat was always neat. Nothing is scattered around, every equipment set was kept neatly, one basket for each set. Every night it would be stored inside the machine room and every morning Sukono would take it out.
The boat
Middle deck
Innovative wetsuit hangers
Middle deck with hidden entrance to machine room at the corner 
Middle deck
the dinghy.. I know the right edge was cut. I compromised the shot because the camera with casing was too heavy to carry around and be fussy.
ladder/shelves leading to the rooftop
The diving & fishing deck
Beside diving, Thomas also conducted fishing trip. Even when we were diving, every morning Sukono would take out a fishing pole and they will just leave it. The fishing was quite successful. While we were there, they caught big trevally, some Spanish mackerel and king mackerel.
I have not been a fan of fishing since forever. However, I also can’t be a hypocrite because I still eat fish. As best as I could, I would stay far away when we caught fish.
So the fishing pole would bend, Sukono or Thomas would shout for the captain to stop, then they quickly put in the protector and waist holder for the fishing pole, while reeling in the line. When the fish was in the surface, one of them would use a long pole with metal hook at its end, to ‘tchaczk’, stab the fish and at the same time pulled it up to the lower deck. Most of the time the fish would die fast, but on other times, it would flap in agony all over the floor with blood. It was scary sight and sound for me. One time we caught two big mackerel in one day, five minutes between each other. The second one happened just before we were about to go down for a dive. So want it or not, when I finally had to go to the lower deck I had to see the fish quivered rapidly for the last time. Hiks.
That day, after many good fishing day, it was apparently too much for Thomas’s fridge. Even too much for Sukono and Captain’s fridge, I think. So Thomas brought it to the restaurant and asked them to cook for us. He paid them some money and the fish dish was free for us. Anyway, normally for mackerel, it would be cut horizontally so there were nice sections of the fish to be fried. That’s what we thought. No, as mentioned previously, about the gigantic portion they tend to give, the restaurant actually cut the fish in half, one part with the head and another with the tail. The one with the tail was sliced into two symmetrical halves and served for two of us. Two of us got half of the 1.2 meter fish. For one meal. Two of us. One meal. Half of 1.2 meter fish.
