last day of diving
01 may
did my first nitrox dive today in a new location for me - rasdhoo channel - which is the channel in between kuramathi island and rasdhoo island. strong current, fairly poor visibility because of all the plankton and particulates but the water was warm and i was able to go down to about 28m (93ft). i must have been breathing harder this morning because i blew through my tank in about 40 minutes - not exactly what i was expecting from my first time under using the new air mixture. i have another nitrox dive this afternoon which will fully certify me for nitrox - yay!
the marine life on this dive was probably the most awe inspiring of all of the dives. tons of black and white tipped reef sharks, some lionfish, a group of stingrays and... drumroll please... an enormous manta ray. i'm talking huge. 9 feet across maybe. massive. we were swimming along about 25 m down and literally out of nowhere this thing comes flying in over the reef to within 3 or 4 meters of us, mouth wide open scooping up all the plankton and whatever else happened to be in its path. so incredibly graceful and frightening and alien and beautiful. never seen anything like that in my life. i wish i'd been able to get some better shots or maybe some video but i was too astounded to think about pictures. apparently mantas haven't been seen around here in a couple of weeks which made this sighting really special. what a gift.
the second dive of the day - and my second nitrox dive - was back at three palms, where i did my deep water certification dive yesterday. more cool stuff, a couple of turtles, a huge porcupine fish (i want to say it was the size of a soccer ball), an eagle ray, lobsters everywhere. there's one more morning dive that i technically could do tomorrow depending on whether or not i want to just relax. maybe i'll fit it in.
my departure instructions arrived early evening. looks like i'll be transferring back to malé by seaplane! i've heard the transfer by air is the way to go. it's faster and you get a birds eye view of the atolls. brilliant! come to think of it, in looking back on this past week, despite all of the unknowns everything has worked out great. now i just have to go to reception and pay the bill. eek.
did my first nitrox dive today in a new location for me - rasdhoo channel - which is the channel in between kuramathi island and rasdhoo island. strong current, fairly poor visibility because of all the plankton and particulates but the water was warm and i was able to go down to about 28m (93ft). i must have been breathing harder this morning because i blew through my tank in about 40 minutes - not exactly what i was expecting from my first time under using the new air mixture. i have another nitrox dive this afternoon which will fully certify me for nitrox - yay!
the marine life on this dive was probably the most awe inspiring of all of the dives. tons of black and white tipped reef sharks, some lionfish, a group of stingrays and... drumroll please... an enormous manta ray. i'm talking huge. 9 feet across maybe. massive. we were swimming along about 25 m down and literally out of nowhere this thing comes flying in over the reef to within 3 or 4 meters of us, mouth wide open scooping up all the plankton and whatever else happened to be in its path. so incredibly graceful and frightening and alien and beautiful. never seen anything like that in my life. i wish i'd been able to get some better shots or maybe some video but i was too astounded to think about pictures. apparently mantas haven't been seen around here in a couple of weeks which made this sighting really special. what a gift.
the second dive of the day - and my second nitrox dive - was back at three palms, where i did my deep water certification dive yesterday. more cool stuff, a couple of turtles, a huge porcupine fish (i want to say it was the size of a soccer ball), an eagle ray, lobsters everywhere. there's one more morning dive that i technically could do tomorrow depending on whether or not i want to just relax. maybe i'll fit it in.
my departure instructions arrived early evening. looks like i'll be transferring back to malé by seaplane! i've heard the transfer by air is the way to go. it's faster and you get a birds eye view of the atolls. brilliant! come to think of it, in looking back on this past week, despite all of the unknowns everything has worked out great. now i just have to go to reception and pay the bill. eek.
posted by michael | 5:49 PM
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