bright blue, cloudless, sunny skies...
we headed west this morning over to a thila (a big submerged block of coral) called fish head - otherwise known as shark thila. apparently it's called fish head because all of the fishermen would only come up with a fish's head attached to their line after the rest of it had been eaten by this site's large population of grey reef sharks. hysterical.
the current was particularly strong - or maybe stronger than i would have liked it to be - causing me to tire earlier than usual. when we weren't swimmming against it it was actually a very nice dive. you just let the current take you on a tour of this amazing place. another huge napoleon wrasse, a school of batfish, little forests of sea fans were everywhere, huge schools of moorish idols and needle fish, massive swirling groups of slivery fish that i have no idea what they are. i had to surface earlier than the others which was too bad because apparently after i went up a big sea turtle came over to join the party. again, no biggie. there seems to be no shortage of big sea life here. and i still have... christ, 12 days left! i love my life.
we then continued southwest to an island called maayafushi. nearby, there's another thila called - what else - maaya thila that was made famous when the bbc shot a documentary recording a 24hr period in the lif eof this thila. i can see why they chose this one to film as it was absolutely bursting with life. batfish, morays, lionfish, squirrelfish, grey and white-tipped reef sharks. it seems like everytime i jump in the water i'm amazed at the amount of life there is here.
after surfacing, our boat captain, bhari sped up to us in a little speed boat screaming about a huge manta that had been spotted feeding near the surface. we all scrambled to put our gear back on and dove in once we reached the spot... it was INCREDIBLE! this huge manta just gliding back and forth, mouth gaping wide open, scooping up all the little animals it could on each pass, seemingly unaware or indifferent to the fact that we were there following it. i mean this thing's mouth was enormous. in the scramble to get my gear on i forgot my camera so you'll have to take my word. seriously folks... it was ridiculous.
we then headed south for about 3 hours - allowing us to catch up on sleep, reading, log books, sunbathing etc - to thudufushi and a local dive site called panetone. not really anything out of the ordinary to see there. big forests of alien looking sea fans, schools of butterfly fish... "ordinary" like anything about this trip has been or could ever be ordinary. amazing how jaded you can become when all you're surrounded with is beauty.
we anchored just off a small deserted island wher the crew was to prepare a beach barbecue dinner for us. when we arrived to dinner they had the whole beach lit with these little improvised torches and for our dining table they had created a sand sculpture of a whale shark - hopefully a harbinger of things to come. the night couldn'[t have been more perfect. we were treated to a spectacular sunset - probably one of the most dramatic i've ever seen. the moon didn't rise until about 8 or so which made the sky so dark that all you could see were stars until it rose. on the other side of the island hundreds of those tiny blue bioluminescent jelly/coral polyp thingys were washing up making the shoreline look as starry as the night sky. everywhere you stepped along the water's edge the sand would light up with these little creatures. i did my best billy jean rendition in tribute. hope noone saw me - pretty lame.
tomorrow morning we dive panetone again and then head south... bring it on!
the current was particularly strong - or maybe stronger than i would have liked it to be - causing me to tire earlier than usual. when we weren't swimmming against it it was actually a very nice dive. you just let the current take you on a tour of this amazing place. another huge napoleon wrasse, a school of batfish, little forests of sea fans were everywhere, huge schools of moorish idols and needle fish, massive swirling groups of slivery fish that i have no idea what they are. i had to surface earlier than the others which was too bad because apparently after i went up a big sea turtle came over to join the party. again, no biggie. there seems to be no shortage of big sea life here. and i still have... christ, 12 days left! i love my life.
we then continued southwest to an island called maayafushi. nearby, there's another thila called - what else - maaya thila that was made famous when the bbc shot a documentary recording a 24hr period in the lif eof this thila. i can see why they chose this one to film as it was absolutely bursting with life. batfish, morays, lionfish, squirrelfish, grey and white-tipped reef sharks. it seems like everytime i jump in the water i'm amazed at the amount of life there is here.
after surfacing, our boat captain, bhari sped up to us in a little speed boat screaming about a huge manta that had been spotted feeding near the surface. we all scrambled to put our gear back on and dove in once we reached the spot... it was INCREDIBLE! this huge manta just gliding back and forth, mouth gaping wide open, scooping up all the little animals it could on each pass, seemingly unaware or indifferent to the fact that we were there following it. i mean this thing's mouth was enormous. in the scramble to get my gear on i forgot my camera so you'll have to take my word. seriously folks... it was ridiculous.
we then headed south for about 3 hours - allowing us to catch up on sleep, reading, log books, sunbathing etc - to thudufushi and a local dive site called panetone. not really anything out of the ordinary to see there. big forests of alien looking sea fans, schools of butterfly fish... "ordinary" like anything about this trip has been or could ever be ordinary. amazing how jaded you can become when all you're surrounded with is beauty.
we anchored just off a small deserted island wher the crew was to prepare a beach barbecue dinner for us. when we arrived to dinner they had the whole beach lit with these little improvised torches and for our dining table they had created a sand sculpture of a whale shark - hopefully a harbinger of things to come. the night couldn'[t have been more perfect. we were treated to a spectacular sunset - probably one of the most dramatic i've ever seen. the moon didn't rise until about 8 or so which made the sky so dark that all you could see were stars until it rose. on the other side of the island hundreds of those tiny blue bioluminescent jelly/coral polyp thingys were washing up making the shoreline look as starry as the night sky. everywhere you stepped along the water's edge the sand would light up with these little creatures. i did my best billy jean rendition in tribute. hope noone saw me - pretty lame.
tomorrow morning we dive panetone again and then head south... bring it on!
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