Tabuaeran II: Bigger and Better

July 28, 2009 After an entire night without a single drop of rain we awoke to perfect blue skies with a light northeasterly wind blowing. Ginger whipped up eggs, rice, and Portuguese sausage for breakfast and before we had time to digest we were heading out in the skiff to do a snorkel drift dive. As we exited the pass we could see a lot of activity on the outside. Birds were diving down to the water as baitfish jumped into the air and we could just make out dark fins cruising along the surface. We guessed it was the melon heads at first but as we closed in on the action the fins took on a much more shark like appearance. When we were right in the middle of about eight fins we realized that they were sailfish, which was good since no one was very excited about jumping in the middle of a shark feeding frenzy. When we hopped in the water we could see that the sailfish were about six to seven feet long with long pointed noses similar to marlins and the extendable dorsal fin that gives them their name. They didn't stick around very long once we were in the water, but it was the first time that most of us had ever seen that kind of fish in real life. Once the sailfish had moved on we went back in to shallower water where the current would be strong enough to pull us in through the pass. When we were in about forty feet of water, we bailed out of the skiff and were surprised to see the giant school of barracudas from a few days ago right beneath us. Riley had his underwater camera and we were able to get some amazing shots swimming right with to the hundreds of barracuda, which can be pretty intimidating when they start to circle you; the thought of piranhas definitely entered everyone's head at one point or another. Kenny had his spear but I think he was a bit hesitant to give them reason to unite against us. After fifteen minutes we left the barracuda behind and continued on with our drift dive, hopefully to find fish with more color and smaller teeth. The rest of the drift dive was spent in twenty feet of water with everyone diving down to the bottom while the current pulled them over the terrain. After seeing a wide variety of uhu, goatfish, and two seventy-pound ahi tunas swim by we went back to the boat for lunch. Shortly after tuna sandwiches I found myself the only one awake as everyone enjoyed a nice siesta while I practiced playing the ukulele without strumming. After everyone was up and about, Ginger, Riley, and Capt. Rand went over to the near by beach to walk the shore for shells and gather coconuts. They returned an hour later with a few really nice purple sea urchins and six green coconuts ready to be cracked open. At night we finished off the last of the ahi from the day before then gathered up all our gear for a nighttime drift dive. Ginger and Capt. Rand agreed to escort Riley and I in the skiff as we dove with scuba equipment, something we had wanted to do since we arrived. Our only problem was we only had one dive light, so we got creative and put a normal light inside a Ziploc in hopes that it would still work forty feet down. Once we had attached glow sticks to our tanks we headed out the pass until we were in about fifty feet of water then jumped out into the ocean. Riley and I stayed close as we made our way down to the bottom, just in case the Ziploc flashlight broke. To our amazement however it worked at the bottom, though it only emitted enough light to see about six inches ahead, so we continued to stay close as we made our way through the pass. All the normal fish were there, hiding in the coral, and we were able to get within a few inches of them before they darted off. At one point we turned off our light to check out the bioluminescent particles coming off our fins as we kicked and found out that there was enough moonlight to navigate our way pretty easily. After that it wasn't uncommon for us to turn off our lights for extended periods of time and simply swim just by moonlight. When we were about half way through the dive Riley was busy checking inside a hole for lobster when I saw a spotted eagle ray coming our way and watched as the ray swam right into Riley's side before swimming off in a hurry. At around twenty feet the Ziploc flashlight was emitting enough light to be useful again and Riley and I were able to put some distance between each other and double our efforts in finding interesting sea life. Some of the cool things we found were two varieties of sea cucumbers, one green with large spikes around its sides and the other with a tan cow hide pattern, a large octopus that refused to come out of its hole no matter how much we tickled it, a large red spotted crab, and giant green moray eels almost everywhere we looked. The entire dive took about forty minutes and when we surfaced Ginger and Capt. Rand were right there to pick us up and take us back to the boat. We spent the rest of the night talking about all the things we had seen while eating the brownies Ginger had made. The night dive was definitely something we'll have to do again before we leave. Sabo - dc