Waited patiently in hammock all morning reading my "Adventures in Diving" manual.
I remembered to setup my gear in advance. Managed to get a medium BCD so it fitted properly for the first time! I went out 'tout seul' with Ali, Emma and Zahra while Zahra did her Fish ID test. Zahra's mask broke however and I offered her mine. Ali gave her hers though, so we continued just the three of us. I followed behind while Emma tested Zahra.
I was able to go from side to side looking at things, as visibility was quite good at about 3-5m. We were on the 'Corner Bar' dive site, in 13m of water. It was marvellous!
Eight-banded butterfly fish.
I saw loads with more colour than before - blue and green corals as well as purple. More cones and 'brains' - some huge, up to 6 or 8 feet across.
Diodemus sea urchins.
Swam up against proper reef 'walls' in some instances. Everything seemed smaller than I'd imagined from watching on TV!
A cleaner fish, generic term.
On the first dive I saw squirrelfish (the first fish I saw and identified, they are called squirrelfish as they squirrel away amongst the coral they also have huge eyes for their size giving them quite an intense expression), damsel fish, groupers, pearly bream, all of which there are many sizes and types.
Also a blue spotted ray, about a foot across with tail about 2 ft; an Angel fish (beautiful), blue lined groupers, long beaked coral fish, very distinctive, possibly my favourites; eight-banded butterfly fish, sergeant fish and a huge Trevally almost 3 ft long.
This is a Trevally.
Jacks, a beautiful small anenome fish, dark red I think with a distinctive white dorsal stripe when seen from above. Also saw some coral skeletons, not too many fortunately. The Angel fish was a beige yellows tan colour with luminous blue stripes running from nose to tail in a curve, very 'Tron' effect!
After break Zahra had a bad ear so it was just me and Emma and Mr Han, the captain, all on our ownsome! 'twas excellent and very relaxed.
Saw: two types of box fish, a scorpion fish (very poisonous), two parrotfish, large and very striking blue and yellow with pinkish fins;
more jacks, chocolate groupers, other groupers - lying in wait motionless on the coral for passing prey; blue lined groupers, monocled groupers, pearly bream, fusiliers, three types of damsel fish, angel fish as before and another type of angelfish. And checkerboard wrasse, which move fast!
These are Jacks.
My favourite however, was the Spadefish. What a name for such a majestic fish! I was swooshing along, looking around and then Emma pointed and there it was: motionless, suspended against the green background of the water. It has black eyes. Appeared to be watching me. It was at least 1ft x1ft. Spectacular. It was black faced, with yellowish white body and black fins, shaped like a spade head!
Also saw squirrelfish, cardinal fish, other butterfly fish, and other groupers. I saw hermit crabs retreat into their shells and a Christmas tree worm (apparently! These are important for reef health, which is why we do these Reef survey checks).
I got pins and needles/ numb hands during the 9m second dive. Emma said this was ok as I get it on land. Emma is an Aussie, marine biologist about 25 I think. There was surge too to cope with on the dive as we go close to the shore of Koh Koun, so you get 'blown about' a bit. It's very easy to get a scratch, nothing lasts underwater either, not my nail polish or my hair braid!
Later I watched one of the Georglings catch and eat a moth. He moved so fast!
The quiz tonight was good - La Super Equipe aka Team Awesome. Did pretty well I thought. Me, Kevin (French), Borin (Cambodian), Johnny (Phillipines via USA), and Audrey (San Francisco).
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