Night Dives

Trying to catch up, Thursday went on a dive at dusk, which turned to night about half way through the dive. Went to Coral Sands Beach; straight out into the Lagoon, snorkeling out then dropping down. Continued out for 25 minutes, turn 90 degrees for five minutes in then headed back. A shallow dive, no idea how far out into the Lagoon (long ways) and ended up with a 70 minute dive.

There is always something to see. Wednesday there was only portion of the moon shinning and then it got covered by clouds, so it was really a dark night. We missed the ship (it should have been on the 270 degree bearing). As always, I still had a good time. Ending the dive and almost to the exit location saw something partly under a rock. We must have spooked it as it came slithering out—a lot longer than I thought it should be. It was a banded sea snake; bad news if you get bit by one. Wish I had my camera but it will only go down to 30’.

Found a coconut crab, (while on patrol) but they are hard to take a picture of by yourself, those pinchers bust open coconuts, not going to let it get me. The picture has my flashlight in the background for reference. The largest of these crabs is around 8 pounds; this one should be around 5.