Monday, November 22nd:
I feel like I have covered what the boat was like so I will focus mainly on the dives at this point. Seeing as all in all I ended up going for 10 dives, these next couple posts will mostly just be pictures with some commentary sprinkled in here and there.
The most exciting part of the second day’s first dive was going through this really really narrow cave (also called a swim through.) The cave must have been about 3 feet across so it was a pretty tight fit.
It got pretty dark as you swam through but then as we exited we were met with this brilliant deep blue of the open water. Really stunning contrast.
Here are the rest of the shots from the first dive:
Here are the shots from the second dive, including another pass through the cave:
The main highlight from the third dive of the day was seeing another turtle (think this one was a Hawk’s Bill.) Really just so entertaining watching them chomp away.
Here are the others:
As Kristen and I were eating dinner before our night dive, we noticed two or three large sharks swimming next to the side of the boat where the kitchen was. Guess they were hungry! As cool as it was seeing them from the boat, not my first choice to see these fair sized grey reefs before heading in for a night dive. At least I had a warning – for as we entered the water for our second night dive we immediately saw sharks. Pretty spooky seeing these green eyes in the distance and then these green eyes not at a distance, but rather close. Very exhilarating though.
We also saw a giant crab sticking out of the rocks this time and as I swam over corals I saw plenty of red eyes that belonged to little nocturnal shrimp.
Aydan showed us a game he called “fishing” where you shine your flashlight on the little “bait” fish and watch as the Giant Trevallies come swooping in to gobble them up. I found it funny and did it at first, but then started thinking about someone shining their light on me and illuminating me for a shark and felt like it was bad karma. Here are the Trevallies and some corals.
All in all, really glad I got the night dives in. Quite the experience.
These photos and descriptions are spectacular. Just can't get over the size and beauty of some of those clams, and the caves must have been unbelievably beautiful and mysterious. That little boxfish and the star coral (not sure if that's the real name) are particular favorites, not to mention the very painterly shots of many fish here.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am SO glad I didn't know about the nights dives until after the fact. Thanks goodness for that.
The dogface puffer is too cute. The coral formations looked exceptionally beautiful at this site
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