I took my vomikind just before leaving home so that there is enough time until we get on the boat.
The temple adventure guys were taking out the big boat today so we did a giant stride entry from the platform at the back of the boat. While I waited for Amrita to come near the drift-line (line that you can pull if you drift), I saw a 30cm funny-looking filefish from the surface at around 6m near 1 of the lines going down. There were jellyfish here and there and I spotted just one yellow sea nettle. As soon as Amrita came I did the compass exercise (swim in a straight line using compass) at the surface and CESA from 6m, 2 of the 3 skills that were remaining. Then, following one of the lines, we went down.
While going down the line I got to look at the filefish from close. It was a ‘scribbled filefish’ (Aluterus scriptus – 30cm) and it indeed looked as if a toddler’s doodle came alive. There were still a lot of Odonus niger, they were mostly at 6-10m depth. Among the coconut leaves, pig-faced leatherjackets were camouflaging (Paramonacanthus choirocephalus), they are 4-6cm filefish with white and green stripes. They are hard to spot unless you look at the leaves or under them closely.
From around 10m, I started seeing a lot of Taeniamia fucata, a magenta cardinalfish with blue lines over and under its eyes. They were there in 100s all the way to the bottom.
Near the coconut leaves at the bottom, there were 3 70-80cm groupers lurking. Here and there, there were jellyfish bouncing on the bottom that were being pecked by fish.
At the bottom, we finished the compass skill, I swam along the line while following only at the compass and Amrita checking whether I’m going straight.
Whenever I saw structures on the ground with holes I looked into it to see if there were any octopus as Amrita had seen them for 2 consecutive days! But I eventually didn’t find any…
The white hydroids that are there at the pier were also down here and a lot of them were open. On one of the branches there was a tiny lionfish (10cm) sitting and resting.
Near one oyster there a 20cm moorish idol was pecking at something with effort. I couldn’t tell what it was pecking at though. Either the algae or sponge that was growing on the oyster. There were several Gymnothorax thyrsoideus popping their heads out of holes and cracks near the bottom.
Whenever we shifted from one reef to another we went close along the ground looking out for sea urchins as I wanted to bring back several for the sea urchin fertilisation experiment. I didn’t find any though, probably because it’s not the season..
I saw the ‘beer garden’ reef for the first time where there were a lot of bottles stuck in the sand (with some sort of support). Although I looked into several bottles I didn’t find anything hiding in there.
There were a lot of Pinna standing on the sand so whenever I saw ones that were partially open I tried looking inside to see if there were any of the symbiont shrimps living inside. I again didn’t find any, in fact one of the pinna closed its doors (valves) at my face so I backed off leaving him alone.
Near one of the lines leading to the next reef, Amrita pointed at something on the ground. I saw that the sand had been dug up and in the middle of it was a hole in which a sand-coloured shrimp rested (diameter = 2 cm). I first thought it was a mantis shrimp but it might have been a different type. There also were shrimp gobies on the sand although no shrimp were to be seen near it. Shrimp gobies often live in symbiosis with the shrimp a characteristic from which it got its name. In this relationship, the shrimp is the builder who will build a safe burrow for them and the goby is the house’s watchman on the lookout for danger!
We came up once Amrita was at 50 bars at which point I was at 70.
Repetitive Dive: Interval 15mins
We climbed out of the water from the ladder as we had to change tanks.
We changed tanks, ate some tapioca chips while we warmed up for some time in the sun to prepare for the 2nd dive. The second dive was essentially a fun dive as we were done with all the skills. For the 2nd dive, Amrita wanted me to lead and take her to all the 3 reefs.
The rope going from the 1st reef (at the bottom) to the 2nd reef had formed a vertical curve and along that a school of yellow and white-striped snappers were in ‘rassemblement’. I also saw a Bodianus axillaris (10cm) among the debris.
After taking a round around the first reef I signaled Amrita and went along the rope leading to a 2nd reef which was the ‘beer garden’. Near one of the iron rods jutting from the bottom, a black Cephalopholis spp with white star-like spots was resting close to the bottom. It was turning towards me as I moved around filming it as if it was protecting its home from me.
On hydroids, I noticed mostly Cinhitichthys oxycephalus (pixy hawkfish) or another species of a reddish brown hawkfish perched. Only once, I saw a juvenile (8-9cm) lionfish perched in the shadow among a bunch of hydroids.
I was keeping an eye on my air and computer. When I was at 160 bars I noticed that we had 7 mins to the decompression limit (18m) so I signaled Amrita. Her computer said 5 mins so we decided to go up. We stayed a little longer at around 11m. I immediately saw the deco limit go up.
There were a lot of Siganus javus among the M.argentus, O.nigers, fusiliers and another silver fish with yellow tail that I still have to ID.
I met the Aluterus scriptus again so I filmed it. I noticed the Paramonacanthus choirocephalus again too so I filmed them too among the coconut leaves. If I had known that they eat Aiptasia earlier I would have tried to get them… There also was a juvenile Arothron Hispidus hiding near the leaves.
After some time we ascended, did a safety stop at 3m and came up.
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