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Dive 12 -- continued

...circling above. Everywhere I looked there were sharks swimming along the perimeter of the area or right overhead. I saw herb and asked where Gene was, he didn't know. I then saw Antonio.. (what a relief!) and asked him… he shrugged and asked if I was OK, and signaled to swim with him. I ascended with Antonio among countless turtles and sharks. On the Panga the driver radioed the other Panga to confirm Gene was safely aboard… he was. I knew he would be, but I felt better.

We had longer than the usual time to relax before dinner, Gene and I split a Martini and most of us went for a panga ride around the arch at sunset to get some great pictures. By now the sky was clearer and the sun was shining. (Very important for sunset pictures.) We drove around the arch stopping for pictures all along the way. It was a merry group. We then saw a feeding frenzy of birds off in the distance, it looked like a solid wall from where we were, and then when we were there we were surrounded by masked boobies (or maybe they were swallow tail gulls) and a variety of Gulls and Terns and Boobies, a noisy bunch of feeding frenzied birds. Back to the boat for an incredible dinner of curried chicken and this time the dessert was a stuffed baked apple with the top put back on and stuffed with raisons and cheese/cream mixture. How elegant.

Right after dinner -- we went for another panga ride in the dark, this time we rode quite a ways from the boat. There were some stars out, but it was partly cloudy. They shut the motor and we sat and stared into the water, we were looking for bioluminescence. On the ride out it was obvious that there was a lot of it here, just by looking at the wake of the boat, which seemed to be glowing and sparkling. But gazing into the black waters of this remote place, away from the whole world it seemed, away from the lights of the Lammer Law, we saw the most unbelievable show. At first I thought it was a joke, and that someone had slipped into the water with a dive light.

Where the water lapped up against the side of the panga, there were sparkles. But underneath the water, the movement of the animals made it look like there were lights below. Like we were over a group of divers. Sometimes they would get very bright and big then fade. It was beautiful, so surreal. People said they saw shapes, like maybe we were seeing dolphins or large schools of fish below. Sometimes it was bright like something was about to break the surface of the water. I could have stayed out there for hours, everyone one quiet and awed… an occasional gasp of delight or surprise by somebody startled by a particularly big or bright set of lights. People were reaching their hands in the water to see if the lights would react, but the splashing of the hand just created sparkles on the surface. All too soon the dive master said it was time to return to our boat, and the dreamy visit to the night waters was over, like a spell broken, the motor started up, and we were zipped back to the boat. A slide show and bedtime. A most amazing day.

Day 6--Aug 1

Slept in today which felt great. The dive wasn't scheduled until 7:30, so relax time! Watched the dolphins play while we had coffee. We have company today at Darwin's Arch. The Aggressor boat is here, first boat we've seen in days. We dressed up in our dive gear to Italian opera played at high volume which seemed to attract and entertain the dolphins as well as us. The dolphins slapped their tails and danced in front of us.

Dive 13--Darwin's Arch --90 ft. for 1 hour

Headed out for a nice ride to the arch, sun is coming out. On the descent was a rather large Galapagos shark, after that it was sharks. Many Hammers and Galapagos, actually schools of Hammers today with Galapagos mixed in. I took pictures of a turtle feeding on a rock,. It would actually pick up rocks to get what he was after ignoring us completely. Continuous sharks the entire dive but no whale Sharks!

The dive was an hour at 90 ft, but the sharks were deeper than 90 all the way up to about 30 feet! Got back in the Pangas and a whale shark was at the surface--so the pangas dropped us off about 3 times to snorkel with it. Many Remoras clinging to the tail of this seemingly young Shark. (30 feet long?)

After a fantastic breakfast of French toast, spicy sausage, fresh fruits and juices, we were ready for the next dive.

Dive 14--Darwin's Arch --73 ft. for 50 minutes

This was a fun dive! Lot's of action, we went to the ridge (the theatre) and it was like a gigantic aquarium. The sharks swam by continuously in 2's, 3's and 4's. Many at the ridge level, some a little lower or higher. It was fascinating! We saw all the usual things too, eels and puffers, wrasses by the millions and Hogfish always playing at your hands, trying to take advantage of what you might be stirring up from the rock. Sometimes they bite at your fingers as if to say… "stir stuff up more" or "get off my rock, I was eating there".

After the dive Gene and I showered up to get warm, some people went off to try and snorkel with the dolphins. When they got back they had stories of dolphins, sea lions and a Whale Shark… oh well!