My first dive after finally defeating strep throat was an afternoon shore dive at Mucky Pirates Bay here in Pemuteran–just 5 minutes away from my house. The tireless pirates at Sea Rovers provided shore support and divemaster Abdul was my guide as we checked out what I can happily call my new ‘house reef.’ The support team thought I was kidding when I said to come back in 2 hours, but I came up with nearly an empty tank right at 120 minutes.

The dive site is aptly named as this is a typical muck dive on blackish sand. There were tons of things to see under the pier (the pipefish, nudibranch, tiny scorpionfish and false clownfish below), and we only made it as far out as the boat mooring lines today. I’ll be back tomorrow morning and I hear it is also a fantastic night dive.

Dive log: Mucky Pirates Bay / Max depth: 32 feet / Time: 120min