After a few days of eating out every night, and getting Ouest’s little toe surgery taken care of (it healed up perfectly), we were off again.

Along this particular stretch of water there were hundreds of these fishing boats zooming along with a line or two trailing out the back. A bit of research on the area turned up a very hand-to-mouth existence for these guys. One article in particular talked about a storm that had left them stranded on land for a week, during which time nearly the entire fleet had to resort to getting money via loan sharks with a 20% daily vig. This, apparently, is just normal life for them. Sail off into the dark, hope to catch a handful of fish that can be sold for just a few dollars, and repeat the next day, forever. When you see the number of them out here it’s difficult to imagine there are any sizable fish remaining to be caught.

We pulled up to a tiny restaurant on this beach to find that a big family of expat Mormons were already there. The proprietor of the place had clearly never seen 16 people show up at one time before. You could see the worry on her face. She didn’t have enough chicken to go around. We thanked her for letting us know and wandered off down the beach to see what else we could find.

The small island of Gili Gede is mostly a dive destination for those who like to get way off the beaten path. There are a handful of tiny boutique dive resorts, a couple of local warungs (small family restaurants), and not much else.

Ouest was out of commission, having been told by the doctor to stay out of the water for five days, so it was just me and Lowe for this dive outing.

We did two dives, mostly seeing very small things like nudibranchs, with visibility a little less stellar than I’d have liked, but Lowe, as always, was super positive, saying he really liked the dives. It’s funny, here I am at fifty feeling bummed out when I don’t see something epic on my dives, while my thirteen year-old is underwater in a zen-like state, just enjoying being down there, completely unconcerned with whether or not he sees a big ticket creature or not. I can learn a few things from him.

We took a mooring out front of this small marina which surprised us with this beautiful view and ping pong.