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Part 3: Plummet like a stone, soar like a jet We started several of our days with a deep dive in the hope of seeing hammerheads – a species that proved elusive, but the search was most revealing in other respects. For starters, there's what became known as Mary's 40m dash. A slow descent had been agreed upon, lingering a few minutes in the shallow on the off-chance of seeing schools of bumpheads and jacks (they were mentioned in the briefing, so we didn't see any). But there was no dilly-dallying for Mary. Despite being better known for her conservative diving, she decided to lead a charge to 40m, swiftly followed by about half the group, none of whom could keep up with her. Mary rocketed down to 39.9m before rebounding back up to a depth where she felt more comfortable. Someone asked Mary if she saw anything down there; she said no because she never took her eyes off her computer! And then there was the deep dive that was deeper for some than others. Blue spheres of light were reportedly spotted (a more precise description was never obtained) and Pete saw a 'shadow' of what could have been a hammerhead. He later conceded it was more probably a large tuna… The week included all sorts of diving: wall dives around the island, shore dives straight off the drop-off in front of the resort where the 5m deep aquamarine water turned to 600m of dark oceanic blue in one fin kick, shallow reef dives at nearby Kapalai, dives at dawn (more popular with some than others) and night dives after which you emerged to the dazzling, starry skies. For the most part the currents weren't strong, with one memorable exception when a gentle wall dive turned into a high-speed drift dive. We started at Turtle Cavern and headed towards Barracuda Point, but by the time we'd finished our dive I think we'd zoomed past our planned destination and were half-way along to the next dive site. It was quite an adrenaline rush, I have to admit, but Margaret found it the most exhilarating by far. I half-expected her to jump in the water again and go for another round. Some of the group were treated to a dive inside Turtle Cavern, a spot that had been off-bounds until it was discovered that Francois was a certified wreck diver. Danny gave a dive briefing that was apparently rather daunting, with talk of narrow tunnels they'd have to drag themselves through in single file. It should be noted that at the entrance to the cavern is a large warning sign to remind divers that people have entered the cavern and never returned. After weighing up the options, Patrick, Andrew and Franck swam about 80m in and waited there while Francois, Pete and Danny went to explore further. By all accounts it wasn't as scary or as difficult as they'd been led to believe. 'Awesome' and 'exceptional' were among the words they used to describe the dive. I think the only disappointing part was the fact that the turtle and dolphin skeletons inside the cave had been purposely placed there to enhance the eerie atmosphere. Not quite the same somehow as stumbling upon remains in their original location. |
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