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| Frog Fish |
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| Map of some Dive Sites we have been diving - Crystal Rock, Castle Rock, Golden Passage to name a few. |
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| Sweetlips |
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| The sun is HOT! |
Slept much better last night – earplugs! The first time in my life I have ever worn them – good tool to have! Yesterday we had lots of rain – hard rain. Apparently the worst for the area in many years. Consolation; it is warm rain! This morning the sun is shining – life is good…and hot! First dive was easy. Turns out it was a warm up for dive 2 and 3 of the day. Giant manta rays!! Lots! The site is out in the middle of nowhere; looks like any other site but holy moly – on backward roll entry looking down to the crystal clear bottom of 30 feet were 2 mantas just waiting there to say ‘hello’ to us! They are huge and so graceful. The currents changing with the tide and the moon are quite interesting. This particular dive was a drift of 3 knots. Mantas swim into the current and are on the top of the barren reef so when you see one coming towards you, it is all you can do to find a piece of rock or coral - that is almost impossible to find – something to hang on to – to watch this elegant creature. OMG – what a dive. We believe we saw 12 – 15 on this dive. So can you guess what we would like to do for our next dive in daylight hours…let’s go see more mantas!!
B & A & G & J have renamed this dive ‘Cinti’. The story goes like this. We are diving the same site but in the opposite direction as the tide has changed. Visibility was less but the adrenaline was high. We drop down, drift in 4 knot current, and all of a sudden Greg spots something. He and his camera are off and gone in the opposite direction which to me, looks like he is going over the edge of the reef. My first thought, keep with your buddy but where is he going? I am drifting very fast past him and cannot find anything to grab on to. Brook and Andrea can no way stop – nothing to hang on to, the dive master is out of my site so guess what – I have been abandoned by my buddy for what?!? I anxiously found a piece of coral rubble about 8”x6”x2” to use as a pick to help hold myself on the bottom in the current – it was tough!! I could see Greg’s bubbles but not him. I struggled fighting the current to advance about 30 feet towards him; seemed like hours but was more like 6 or 7 minutes. He finally rose above the edge with a serene but questioning look on his face, oblivious to what had been going on! I was so relieved to see him! He started to drift again so I let go to catch up. He could tell I was somewhat concerned but unsure why.
When we surfaced and got back into the dive boat the story unfolded that Greg had spotted something, gone over the edge of the reef and wedged himself behind a big rock to be literally stroked by the wing of a huge manta ray!! He had been mesmerized and fell in love! He watched and played with the mantas! So the renaming of this dive site to ‘Cinta’? It means ‘love’ in Indonesian.
Gusty tells me that he had me in his site all the time – thank you, Gusty!
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| Greg's Cinta |
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| Fishing Boat |
The following is a typical lunch or dinner being set up Risky. Gan serving up. Fresh doughnuts after an afternoon dive. Life is good!
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| Two crew members |
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| Sunset at 6:00 pm |
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| Lionfish |
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School of Sweetlips
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