My Deep, Blue View: ANOTHER AMAZING day!!!

(Map Of Today: Resort=Red, Dives= Yellow, Surface stops= Green)

(Me Modeling for Claudia to give the photo perspective)

Today was similar to yesterday, we wend back to The Dampier Straight, ad returned to two of the three spots. We left at 8:30 again, it took a few cups of coffee before I became human, but after that it was smooth sailing. We left the dock with plans to stop at a site called Blue Magic near Sardines, but we were unable t find it, because it was a bit choppy, so after about ten minutes we gave up and went back to sardines. I was not opposed to this as it is an insane dive site, and is loaded with fish. The current was a little more than it was yesterday, but that meant more fish. Immediately as we got the bottom we looked up and there was a large school of barracuda of all sizes. I swam up and got as close as I could without chasing them away so I could get a good shot.

(School Of Yellow Tail Barracuda and Chevron Barracuda)

After getting my shot of the barracuda school, I went back down to the bottom, and watched Nikson as he called in more fish by beating his fist on his chest. It was amazing, they all seem to be attracted to this sound. I didn't get a shot of this as I was a bit too far away, but I will try next time. The reef had far more fish today as a result of the current, making for very lively photographs. In a lot of the photographs it looks like an explosion of fish just hit the reef, it was amazing. I am still not used to seeing so many fish on one reef, and I am not sure I will ever be. I was so taken by the scenery, and was fighting the current so much that I almost ran out of air, but I made it up with 50 psi out of the 3200 I started with.

(Millions Of Little Fish)

After Sardines we went back to the same island as yesterday called Gam on the south beach. Today I had my small Olympus point and shoot with me, so I was able to get some shots of the amazing beach. It is a stunning beach bordered with coconut trees. We walked down the beach a bit to one of the trees that grows horizontally before turning up, and I climbed on top of it taking shots up the trunk into the lightly cloud scattered blue sky, it was beautiful. We did our surface stop here, had a cup of coffee and went back out to dive.

(Our Coffee Break Spot)

It took about two minutes to get out to the next dive site, another repeat from yesterday: Mike's Point. We hopped into the water and followed our underwater bible Nikson down to 31 meters to find an over hang that sweet lip snappers like to hang out under. When we got down the current was too strong for me to get under the over hang and get a shot, so Leon and I went back up to the shallows. It was not as amazing as it was yesterday, some of the fish were not around, including the very friendly bat fish and my sea snake. Though some of the fish were missing there were great light rays penetrating the surface that really made for cool photos.

(Amazing Light Rays at Mike's Point)

I took several shots of coral with the light rays and coral before being pulled into an anemone with three clown fish on it. Though I am happy with the shot I got of it, I am a little annoyed with myself that I didn't think to shoot up and get the light rays with them, but there is always another day. After the second dive we went to an island called Frewen Bonda for lunch. It is a very cool island, about 15 feet from shore it droops into the deep, meaning it was easy to approach and great to run into the water. We ate lunch under a massive tree that sticks out over the beach while watching the kids from the islands village fish and hunt in the giant tide pools. Sorry I left my camera on the boat so no photos, maybe next time.

(Beautiful Colours)

After lunch we went to the side of Frewen Bonda and had our third and last dive of the day on the sheer side of the island with lost of soft coral growth. The current was great on this dive, pushing at a gentle pace meaning that we barely had to swim. Leon and I went ahead of the others and when we reached the end of the wall, we went up to the shallows, almost breaking the surface and took advantage of the sunlight that made for some cool shots of the coral.

(Sea Fans Near The Surface)

(Coral And Sea Fans Near The Surface)

I can safely say that I had another amazing day today, and still have yet to be let down by this gorgeous place. I am sitting with Leon and Nikson, listening to the plan for tomorrow, and it sounds very exciting. We are going back to the manta spot to see if they are back, so hopefully tomorrow night I will have some incredible shots of giant manta rays swooping over my head, but no one can know for sure if they will be there. I hope all is well with all of my readers, as I am sure you can tell all is well here, and I go to sleep every night anticipating the next days dives, I am entranced by the beauty of this place.