September 26, 2005 - Amazement

I slept for most of the last 2 days. Supine was the best position to fight off the nausea. This morning couldn’t have come fast enough.

We arrived at Coco Island today and anchored in a beautiful bay. The seas calmed within this protected area. I was quite thankful.

We managed to make 3 dives today within this bay. I was immediately greeted by some Whitetip sharks. They weren’t huge, but were big enough to keep me on guard. There was a quote that I promised I would use as my mantra…”The camera is NOT a force field”. This stems from a passage I recently read in a diving magazine which declared that all underwater photographers believe that holding a camera would magically protect them from harm. I, too, subscribe often to this erroneous belief.

The third dive was at night. It has been a while since I have been on a night dive…perhaps 12 or 13 years ago. The goal was to observe the hunting patterns of a very large school of Whitetip sharks. They slithered through the coral like a huge vat of snakes, reaching into the nooks and crannies of the reef. This time, I had not only my force field-producing camera, but also “laser-gun” spotting lights on my camera. There were no mishaps tonight and I had a remarkable experience.

It is hard to believe that this was only the first of five diving days. Tomorrow, the first dive will be at 7 am. The excitement may not allow me to sleep.