I got woken up at seven for a cup of coffee before starting the dives. The first dive was really nice. Maybe it was just getting in the water again after doing so much diving for a month then abruptly stopping. The highlights included two hawksbill turtles and a giant eel (at least ten feet long). It was also the first time I've ever heard rain under the water - it was an amazing sound.
When we got out from the dive there was a huge breakfast waiting for us - I could get used to this lifestyle! I spent the three hour surface interval working on my log book, talking, and reading. The second dive was also very nice - but some of my co-divers are really bugging me. To start with both the Swedish guys have every dive gadget ever invented so it takes them ten minutes longer to suit up and they wouldn't even start until everyone else is almost done. Right at the start of the dive I had just noticed there's was a lot of damaged coral around and then I watched one of the Swedish guys knock over a big table coral - he was standing on it! When I tried to get him to put more air in his BCD so he wouldn't be on the coral he looked at me like I was an idiot. Then we saw a large turtle and the divemaster led us around to the side so we could approach it quietly in a non-threatening way - the two Swedes just swam straight at it and when it tried to get away one of them grabbed and hung on! Later when I tried to suggest he shouldn't molest the turtles he said that they like it and he once saw on TV divers holding on to big turtles and being towed around!?! I also saw a smaller turtle (luckily a quick one as well). And there were tons of different kinds of trigger fish - including some really beautifully colored Red Tooth Triggers. When we were doing the safety stop it started to rain very hard - the sound was incredible, but even cooler was the surface from underneath while the rain was splashing in to it - it looked incredible!
When we got out we had a huge lunch waiting for us. The weather cleared up a little but it was still overcast and I was too annoyed with the others to talk, so I spent the surface interval reading. Dive three wasn't so great. Lots of damaged coral. The highlights included a nudie brach, a couple of cowries, and a few garden eels (nothing like the eel gardens in Dahab!) In the evening the sun came out! I spent the evening reading, eating another huge meal (I am getting used to this), and talking.
I decided to go on the night dive even though I normally don't like night dives. I felt like I was getting a cold so I wanted to get as many dives in as possible in case I can't dive the last day or two. The dive was a waste of time. To me the only reason to dive at night it that it's dark. Well we dove right under the boat with it's huge spotlights pointing down in to the water, plus one of the Swedes had a giant underwater laser cannon - that he'd use to blind me as often as he could. It was really a shame because when I got in the shadow of the boat away from everyone I could see that the phosphorescence in the water would be really bright. I got out of the water wondering why I bothered and decided I'd skip the rest of the night dives.
After the dive we watched a bad Stalone video (Daylight?) then I dragged myself to bed.
