We skipped the early morning dive of the day which was a 30 metre dive in the hope of seeing some hammerhead sharks. Our decision was based on the possibility of actually sighting them which was a 50/50 chance on a good visibility day. The normal procedure would be to descend to 30 metres and hover there for 45 minutes whilst looking down a further 10 to 15 metres which is where they would be swimming. The visibility was not good and the other two dives of the day were more suitable for us so we stayed in bed. As it turned out there were no sightings anyway so we made the right decision.
Having decided to complete our advanced open water diver course aboard the Blue Shark Two, with instruction from Imthi, we took the opportunity to perform our compulsory navigation dive at Okobe Thila. We managed to perform the required square, in and out line and measure our kick cycles. Then time was spent on the reef where we sighted napoleonfish, gobies, black spotted porcupinefish, lionfish, regal angelfish and emperor angelfish and it was a really enjoyable dive, all the better because we knew we had achieved satisfactory standards for the navigation dive and we were on the way to becoming advanced open water divers.
After lunch we visited the resort island of Bandos. It was rather wonderful. Luckily I took my camera with me as there was plenty to photograph: crabs; geckos; beautifully arranged fauna and ocean views, a view of the Blue Shark Two and Ian stood in front of his yacht... There were parrotfish swimming around in the crystal clear harbour waters. We took a stroll around the island and completed the circumference in just 45 minutes, and that included Tomer and I pausing for numerous photographs along the way!
The final dive of the day at Back Faru became a drift dive where we saw honeycomb moray eels, giant moray eels, two honeycomb moray eels either side of a giant moray eel in a coral block, leopard shark, trumpetfish, scorpionfish, snappers, butterflyfish, regal angelfish, sergeant major fish, powder blue surgeonfish, clown triggerfish and titan triggerfish. It was brilliant!
After dinner we were taken aboard the Soleil, which is the sister boat to the Blue Shark Two in the fleet, which was also very new and furnished in a very different style to the Blue Shark Two. Personally I preferred our boat with it's dark wood panelling and blue carpets throughout and although it doesn't have the Soleil's jacuzzi it does have fantastic man size showers and sensible sized cabins. After having a lengthy discussion with the managing director of Blue K Safari, who wanted us to become travel agents for his company enticing the British and Europeans to his fleet, we returned to the Blue Shark Two for a game of bao. We left the Japanese on the Soleil to return later that evening.
Copyright 2002 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.