Eels and a milestone dive

Photograph of a yellow frogfish I shot in Indonesia (2010)
©Jean Janssen

Thursday’s diving was really special, dives 199 and 200. I had the camera today, but no strobe. These were the least picturesque dives of the week, but you’ll see there was still a lot to photograph (all pictures from the previous post were from these dives). There were some special finds today, a yellow frogfish (very rare) and a turtle (common, but always fun), some of my favorites to photograph.

photograph of a turtle I shot in Borneo (2004)
©Jean Janssen

spotted moray eel
©Jean Janssen

People have been seeing eels on our dives, but this was the first day I spotted one myself. I saw several spotted moray eels. You usually see them with their heads slightly out of their “cave” with their mouths open ready to catch whatever happens by. I see eels all the time, but it is rare to see them free-swimming. Today I saw two free-swimming eels.

My 200th open water dive
©Theodore F. Crane

Our second dive of the day was at Small Wall. There was a cave at the bottom on the wall where Rocky got my picture in honor of my 200th dive!! I am not sitting on the sand, just posing in a suspended state.

And because you can’t just stop at 200… we did a night dive so I could start off the third set of 100. We went in at the Buddy Dive pier (easier than doing a night dive off a boat) and kicked out on the surface until we were past the moored boats. Just as we were descending, a manta ray swam by. So cool!! The dive could have ended there and we would all have been happy. It was a really a twilight dive. I like Twilight dives, it is a much easier entry and you acclimate slowly as you lose the ambient light, watching the underwater activity change. Right off the bat, I spotted two more eels. It was the day for eels. Plenty of light when we went in and we really only needed flashlights at the end. Which was a good thing because Rocky and I carried 3 flashlights, one each and a backup, and both our primary lights ran out of juice during the dive. We went to the pier together with the backup. We were with our dive group, so no worries. Rocky enjoyed this dive. That is two night dives for him.

About travelbynatasha

I am a retired attorney who loves to travel. Several years ago I began working on a Century Club membership achieved by traveling to 100 "foreign" countries. Today, at 49 years of age the count is at 82. Many were visited on land based trips. Some were cruise ports. Some were dive sites. Most have been fascinating.

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