Sunday, December 27, 2009
We awoke this morning to the most gorgeous sunrise…we took it as a GOOD omen that today would be a whale shark day! Dives on the Manthiri start early….briefing is at 6:30 a.m. and the winds and seas were calm. Off we went to the dhoni to get geared up. We were only just out of the harbor and one of the dhoni crew spoke excitedly….Moosa and Hassan translated…”they’ve seen a whale shark”! Everyone got their gear on and we cruised along the reef wall for a bit. Apparently the whale shark had surfaced and then headed into the deep. After 5-10 minutes of cruising, the guys decided it was time to get into the water in the same general area where the shark had been sighted…..
No sooner did my body break the surface of the water and I started descending, Hassan looked at me and told me to turn around….the whale shark was slightly above us and heading right towards us! It was a juvenile…probably 20 feet long…it stayed on a steady course towards us for a few moments and then started heading out into the blue, descending slightly. We swam hard but it’s difficult to keep up with an animal of that size…they look like they’re barely moving but we’re huffing & puffing to try and catch up! It wasn’t a long encounter, time for a shot or two, but we finally had a close-up encounter! They are gorgeous animals…so giant and gentle in the water….what a beautiful start to the 2nd week of our trip!
During our surface interval between dives #1 & #2 the Manthiri was cruising along the reef in about 40’ of water and everyone was watching over the rails and all of a sudden the crew gave out a shout and a good-sized whale shark appeared just off our port side! It cruised along next to us for a few minutes just below the surface and then turned and headed out towards the blue….TWO whale shark sightings in less than 3 hours made us very, very happy!
Dive #3 was delayed because the seaplane schedule got off track and Andrea and Yinnie were arriving to join us for the 2nd week. Since it was so late in the day, we switched to macro lenses and hopped in again. This time we looked for small stuff and were rewarded with a beautiful deep blue snail sponge and then a less than 2-foot long baby whitetip shark under a coral head. Lots of butterflyfish and trigger fish and even an adult whitetip shark cruising in the distance. Soon it was almost a night dive so up we came!
This will be our last night near the wireless tower so internet access will be limited again for at least a few days…..I’ll start the log again and update when I can!
We awoke this morning to the most gorgeous sunrise…we took it as a GOOD omen that today would be a whale shark day! Dives on the Manthiri start early….briefing is at 6:30 a.m. and the winds and seas were calm. Off we went to the dhoni to get geared up. We were only just out of the harbor and one of the dhoni crew spoke excitedly….Moosa and Hassan translated…”they’ve seen a whale shark”! Everyone got their gear on and we cruised along the reef wall for a bit. Apparently the whale shark had surfaced and then headed into the deep. After 5-10 minutes of cruising, the guys decided it was time to get into the water in the same general area where the shark had been sighted…..
No sooner did my body break the surface of the water and I started descending, Hassan looked at me and told me to turn around….the whale shark was slightly above us and heading right towards us! It was a juvenile…probably 20 feet long…it stayed on a steady course towards us for a few moments and then started heading out into the blue, descending slightly. We swam hard but it’s difficult to keep up with an animal of that size…they look like they’re barely moving but we’re huffing & puffing to try and catch up! It wasn’t a long encounter, time for a shot or two, but we finally had a close-up encounter! They are gorgeous animals…so giant and gentle in the water….what a beautiful start to the 2nd week of our trip!
During our surface interval between dives #1 & #2 the Manthiri was cruising along the reef in about 40’ of water and everyone was watching over the rails and all of a sudden the crew gave out a shout and a good-sized whale shark appeared just off our port side! It cruised along next to us for a few minutes just below the surface and then turned and headed out towards the blue….TWO whale shark sightings in less than 3 hours made us very, very happy!
Dive #3 was delayed because the seaplane schedule got off track and Andrea and Yinnie were arriving to join us for the 2nd week. Since it was so late in the day, we switched to macro lenses and hopped in again. This time we looked for small stuff and were rewarded with a beautiful deep blue snail sponge and then a less than 2-foot long baby whitetip shark under a coral head. Lots of butterflyfish and trigger fish and even an adult whitetip shark cruising in the distance. Soon it was almost a night dive so up we came!
This will be our last night near the wireless tower so internet access will be limited again for at least a few days…..I’ll start the log again and update when I can!
No comments:
Post a Comment