return to kuramathi
looks like the storm has blown over. patches of blue sky. should burn off by midday and make for a beautiful day. our first dive today was a difficult one... a really strong current (left over from the storm) made for a bit of stress which cused be to tear through air at a pace almost twice what i normally do. not much fun. but still, a crap day diving is still better than a great day doing anything else.
the calm and sunny weather made for good sailing conditions so we set out west toward the north ari atoll - the part of the maldives where i stayed last year. during the 5 hr trip to ari we all managed to catch up on some sleep, get some sun (managed to get a bit of a burn on my back - shame on me), and watch a couple of dvds.
we arrived at rasdhoo atoll, the atoll where kuramathi (the resort that i stayed at last year) is located, around 2:30. it was so amazing to be revisiting this place so soon. last year's visit here was such a transformative event for me - part of reclaiming my life and setting the tone for the future. like revisiting the place of my rebirth... i had to laugh. so much has happened in the past year and it can all be traced back to this place. my personal and spiritual starting line.
our first dive here was at one of my favorite certification dives - rasdhoo channel. a drift dive where all you had to do was maintain your buoyancy and let the current take you - effortlessly. immense schools of little blue triggers, tuna, jacks. at one point we, along with 2 or 3 other groups, swam over a ridge and hung on (since the current was so strong) and just watched the sealife around us which included an amazing amount of white tipped reef sharks - too many to count. soft corals everywhere, clown fish, box fish, spotted eagle rays... my god, it was overwhelming. toward the end of the dive, we saw what i thought were 2 mantas but which turned out to be mobula rays, something very rare and special. just gliding there above us as if the action below was literally beneath them. it's so nice to know that my diving experience here last year wasn't totally a fluke or just the impressions of a naive observer. this place is truly amazing.
toward sunset we were dropped of at a really easy reef... no current and not much to see but we were allowed to go out on our own with no dive master to explore the area. lots of bleached coral - remnants from when the ocean temperatures rose about a degree worldwide causiong a massive die-off of the corals around here. saw a big moray eel but that was about it. really relaxing. a great way to end the day.
the night was spent relaxing, enjoying each other's company, looking up at the stars - sattelites, shooting stars... the air is so clear and the sky is so big that you lose constellations. too many stars!
we'll be diving hammerhead point tomorrow morning! so excited. i signed up for this dive last year but it was cancelled since i was the only one to sign up for it. so tomorrow it's up at 5:30 for our dive briefing and then on to the hammies! this year they will not escape me. in'shallah.
the calm and sunny weather made for good sailing conditions so we set out west toward the north ari atoll - the part of the maldives where i stayed last year. during the 5 hr trip to ari we all managed to catch up on some sleep, get some sun (managed to get a bit of a burn on my back - shame on me), and watch a couple of dvds.
we arrived at rasdhoo atoll, the atoll where kuramathi (the resort that i stayed at last year) is located, around 2:30. it was so amazing to be revisiting this place so soon. last year's visit here was such a transformative event for me - part of reclaiming my life and setting the tone for the future. like revisiting the place of my rebirth... i had to laugh. so much has happened in the past year and it can all be traced back to this place. my personal and spiritual starting line.
our first dive here was at one of my favorite certification dives - rasdhoo channel. a drift dive where all you had to do was maintain your buoyancy and let the current take you - effortlessly. immense schools of little blue triggers, tuna, jacks. at one point we, along with 2 or 3 other groups, swam over a ridge and hung on (since the current was so strong) and just watched the sealife around us which included an amazing amount of white tipped reef sharks - too many to count. soft corals everywhere, clown fish, box fish, spotted eagle rays... my god, it was overwhelming. toward the end of the dive, we saw what i thought were 2 mantas but which turned out to be mobula rays, something very rare and special. just gliding there above us as if the action below was literally beneath them. it's so nice to know that my diving experience here last year wasn't totally a fluke or just the impressions of a naive observer. this place is truly amazing.
toward sunset we were dropped of at a really easy reef... no current and not much to see but we were allowed to go out on our own with no dive master to explore the area. lots of bleached coral - remnants from when the ocean temperatures rose about a degree worldwide causiong a massive die-off of the corals around here. saw a big moray eel but that was about it. really relaxing. a great way to end the day.
the night was spent relaxing, enjoying each other's company, looking up at the stars - sattelites, shooting stars... the air is so clear and the sky is so big that you lose constellations. too many stars!
we'll be diving hammerhead point tomorrow morning! so excited. i signed up for this dive last year but it was cancelled since i was the only one to sign up for it. so tomorrow it's up at 5:30 for our dive briefing and then on to the hammies! this year they will not escape me. in'shallah.
posted by michael | 9:45 PM
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