Nudi and The Blowfish

Day 135/136/137- This dive trip was a fantastic experience that was jam packed with dives, 11 to be precise and unfortunately from under water, it is nearly impossible to distinguish between the dive photos. With this in mind, I decided to clump the whole excursion into one large post. The following post will describe the 11 dives we did with as much detail as possible. 

We awoke around 4 am in our campervan because I thought I heard a knock on our window! Mike assures me it was just in my dreams. Oh well, we had to be up early anyhow for our pickup at the scuba center. Mike and I, along with 32 other divers, boarded the boat and before we knew it we were making waves in the open ocean. The crew warned us that the first three hours of our journey to the reef would be rocky but that was an understatement. Most of the boat got sea sick. Luckily, Mike and I were ok but we literally couldn't walk from one end of the boat to the other without getting completely shooken up in the process. Highly recommend the sea sickness pills, they worked great. We were also lucky to get one of two rooms on the boat that had a double bed instead of bunks... and a large window to boot!

As soon as we arrived at our destination, we set up our gear and suited up for our first dive. 

                     

Something was different this time from the other times we'd gone diving. No one was coming with us. The dive master gave us a quick lesson on how to use our compasses and informed us on the degrees needed to navigate underwater, to get to and from our first reef. I was a little nervous but as I had recently underwent my training, I knew I could handle it. 

Everything was BIG on the reef. Really, really BIG.

I wish the photo below had turned out better. What you see is a nudi branch, which is a type of sea slug. The color was quite vibrant and it looked like he was wearing a frilly dress. 

See, like I said... BIG.

 The turtle in the video below was BIG!..No, he was HUGE. In the video, I am swimming beside him, my camera is not zoomed in and I can barely fit all of him in the screen.

                                

The days consisted of three things; sleeping, eating, diving then repeat. And of course the view was there for our viewing pleasure during our free time.

This was what we saw in every direction. No other boats, no islands, no land, no buildings, nothing but the big blue ocean. 

Beautiful sunsets set the mood for cozy nights.

As a part of our 11 dives, two of them were night dives. It was my first time diving at night so we went with an instructor as part of a group. Diving at night was truly terrifying. My body shook from fear, excitement and the cold ocean water. We had a briefing before the dive with strict instructions on hand signals and using our torch underwater. We each attached glow sticks to our O2 tanks to seperate us into groups. As we jumped into the water and emptied our BCD's, we slowly melted into the dark black ocean. The only light came from our torches and the pink color of the glow sticks on our companions tanks. Luckily, I felt quite relaxed once we reached the ocean floor, knowing we were with an instructor, gave us the freedom to look around with ease. 

We didn't bring the camera because the dive master said it wouldn't be able to capture anything at night. Am I ever upset I didn't bring it anyway. While we were following the instructor, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I moved my flashlight to see a very very BIG cuddle fish. It was the largest we'd ever seen. Using my torch I got the instructors attention and she came over to see. We knew I had found something cool by her genuine interest, yay! We must have spent 10 minutes just watching it move along the ocean floor. It wasn't afraid of us and allowed us to observe it for some time, it even changed color for us a couple of times. 

After another sleep and eat, it was time to dive. 

Swimming with the fishes.

I cannot stress enough how disappointing our cameras color capturing ability was or was not. The colors are so vibrant and literally wow you at every turn. Different species of fish surrounded us, disappearing within the pastels, the lime greens, the electric blues, the neon yellows, the rich burgundies, the bleach whites, the violets and the burnt oranges of the living coral. It is something you have to see with your own eyes to believe because it truly cannot be captured by a camera. 

It was a great moment when we finally saw a sting ray! I even got to swim with it for a while. We ended up seeing quite a few by the end of the trip, which was a real treat. 

                              

After a lovely pasta dinner on the second night, we began suiting up for our second night dive when an iconic underwater creature showed up at the back of our boat. Specifically, right where we jump in!

Check out that fin sticking out of the water. That is exactly what you don't want to see before getting in... However, they seemed more interested in the left over meat sauce then us, so with nervous anticipation, we queued up to jump in as the sun dropped below the distant horizon, leaving us in the pitch black water. 

Oh an how could I forget ... now that I was an "experienced night diver", Mike and I were sent off on our own for this night dive. AM I SERIOUS? Yes! And yes, it was so scary. 

This time we brought our camera but the dive master was right, nothing turned out like we'd hoped. While Mike and I explored the mysterious waters, we moved our torch from side to side trying to navigate, which quickly became our top priority. Then, combing the dark water in frount of us, we saw the silhouette of a shark! Whipping the torch back in place the silhouette was replaced with an endless abyss of darkness! It was beyond scary and got even scarrier. Mike and I realized, with an array of hand signals back and forth to each other, that we were completely lost. We tried to find our way for a little while before my anxiety took over and then we decided to make our way to the surface. We surfaced about 80 meters away from the boat and in the opposite direction of where we were supposed to be. Oops. Luckily, the captain always sits on the top deck of the boat to keep an eye out for divers. As soon as our lights came above the water, he took notice and signaled to us, asking if we were ok? We signaled back with a giant circle, meaning we were indeed ok. We then proceeded to swim back to the boat in the black shark infested water. Happy to be back at the boat we could laugh at our situation. We were also not the only ones to get lost. :) Turns out it is pretty common. Don't worry mom and mom in law... we are alive and well. 

Sleep, eat, dive, repeat. 

Check out this dude.

 

A very BIG clam. 

Below was one of the landmarks we were given to navigate with from reef to reef. They described it as a garlic clove. I think it's pretty darn accurate. 

These fish were incredible and I am kicking myself for not taking a video of them. They were completely still and as it was a 6 am dive, they were actually still sleeping. They were so still that they looked like a wall, it wasn't until Mike pointed them out that I noticed they were in fact fish and not a wall of coral. Their stillness was mesmerizing, odd and out of place. Oh and in case you can't tell, they were really really BIG!

We have both never dove so much in our lives and we were absolutely exhausted when it was all over. Pro Dives was a great company and it was a great trip. They fed us well, the boat was clean and the dives sites were incredible. Now it was time to put another check on my bucket list.