When the alarm sounded at 05:50 I knew I should have gone to bed earlier last night. I couldn't open my eyes!
Our first dive today was at The Whale on Milln reef and it was fabulous! There was a huge school of humphead parrotfish immediately present as we descended. A green turtle was see swimming away, so gracefully. I managed to get stung by some coral or anemone whilst reaching through a tunnel. The fan corals were beautiful. The tiny glass fish are so attractive and are quite inquisitive and unafraid of divers however, as you swim towards the school they seperate and disperse at an amazing speed.
We dived again at The Whale on Milln reef for our second dive and for this dive I dropped some weight and my buoyancy was still fine. We saw regal angelfish, batfish, barrier reef anemonefish, rock cod, harlequin tuskfish, parrotfish, barred rabbitfish, two titan triggerfish, giant clam, fan corals, plate coral, purple sea squirt and robust sea squirt which are so beautiful and look like coloured porcelain.
Our third dive was at Gordons Mooring on Flynn reef and as our air consumption is improving our dive lasted the permitted maximum of 60 minutes and I still exited the water with 60 bar. We saw more parrotfish, cabbage leaf coral, three types of anemonefish which are so beautiful and have the most gorgeous little faces. I pointed the anemonefish out to an underwater photography adventure diver who seemed very pleased and moved in with her loaned underwater camera.
Our second night dive, at Gordons Mooring on Flynn reef, again lasted the permitted maximum of 30 minutes. Ian and I were diving as a buddy pair without a guide for this dive. Ian spotted a crab hiding in some coral but we didn't see much else until I spotted a white tip reef shark about 1 metre long swimming behind us. I alerted Ian to his presence and we watched him for a moment then moved on leaving him patrolling behind us. Once back on the boat I was pleased to announce to everyone that we had seen a shark, many people were a little bit green with envy, especially the many who had yet to see a shark in their diving career. Ian and I were very privileged to see numerous sharks and of different species during our time spent in the Maldives.
My intended early night became rather a late one and sleep was rather disturbed by the gentle rocking of the boat.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.