We were back in the ocean again at 08:15 for a dive at Maaya Thila. It was superb. There were plenty of sharks, fusiliers, trumpetfish, some barracudas, an octopus, a moray eel, lionfish, boxfish, triggerfish and pufferfish. The sharks had trumpetfish and yellow snappers swimming with them. Ian had a triggerfish swimming directly above his tank for a while, then I had one swimming around my head so close it virtually touched me. It was wonderful, a very good dive.
The second dive was also good at Bathala Thila where I saw a couple of lionfish, a moray eel, clown triggerfish, stonefish, reef bannerfish and one very cheeky pufferfish that pooed directly in front of me and then swam away leaving his cloud of wastage behind him! I also saw an indian coral grouper hiding in the coral, parrotfish, clams and surgeonfish.
After the dive we snorkelled in a house reef for a few minutes where we saw more parrotfish and blue clams but mostly there was just coral to look at.
Our third dive at Rasdhoo Madivaru was without current and much better visibility. We saw butterflyfish, spotted garden eels, a red fire goby, purple fire gobies, tunas, barracudas, white tipped shark, redtooth triggerfih, regal angelfish and sailfin surgeonfish. It was very pleasant and I managed to surface with 100 bar!
As the sun set at dusk the boat crew gathered at the stern and had a small feast. It was the first day of Ramadan today and we had been served wonderful food and drink throughout the day as usual but the crew hadn't even had as much as a sip of water all day long. It is remarkable how some of them manage to stay hydrated whilst diving.
We were treated to a generous serving of chocolate cake after dinner to celebrate two of the Japanese achievements. One had logged five hundred dives and the other three hundred dives. After chocolate cake we all sat down to watch 'Bridget Jones' Diary'...with Japanese subtitles!
Copyright 2002 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.