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Dive 15--Darwin's Arch --76 ft. for 54 minutes

Another nice dive, lots of sharks everywhere you looked. I have changed my camera setting and it works much better now. Since the sun has ducked behind the clouds again it was dim lighting but not bad.

New settings, ASM mode

WB -cloudy

ISO 100

F-stop 2.8 the entire dive

Flash -.3--Mandatory

At the end of this dive we saw a nice big eagle ray. When we first hit the sand, I saw a peacock flounder swimming, I followed it and got a picture. Great dive.

After the dive we washed up and got in the pangas for a ride around Darwin Island. We were in Antonio's Panga.. And he is truly a great naturalist guide. He told us about the island and the arch and the animals that inhabit it… was nice.

Back to the boat, Martini, Dinner, Slideshow, Bed. Ahhhhh.!

Day 7

Dive 16 -- Darwin's Arch --74 ft. for 50 minutes

Into the Pangas at 7:30 and off the Arch. Routine dive (for here) Hammers and millions of fish, one Whale shark, some people saw 2. Swam against the current a great deal, so we were tired at the surface. While waiting to get picked up, I tried taking a picture of Gene bobbing in the water with Darwin's arch behind him. Very difficult, sometimes I wouldn't get him or the Arch, just a big swell that would cover me when I snapped the picture. We were bobbing with Bev and Al for a while, when a booby tried to land on Gene's head. It looked hilarious. I tried again for a pic, but it was hard, then I got dunked under, and saw the booby from below… and that was even funnier! Just his two webbed feet and a beak with 2 eyes… I tried for pictures… finally we got picked up. Breakfast.

Dive 17 -- Darwin's Arch --74 ft. for 50 minutes

Less current on this dive, lot of sharks, we went to ascend in the cleaning station where thousands of Barber butterfly fish wait to clean the hammerheads. Saw thousands of garden eels.

Lunch and some extra rest time for us...we skipped the next dive so we could be fresh for the night dive. (I was a little cold too) After that dive the Lammer Law was on the move to get to Wolf Island for the night dive. We have been anchored here for 4 days, and I will miss the view of the arch. We may see the red lipped bat fish, (looks even stranger than it sounds) on this night dive.

Dive 18 -- Wolf Island Night Dive -- 90 feet for 33 minutes

The purpose of this night dive was to see the red lipped bat fish. We rode a short ways from the boat and dropped in about 85 feet of water… Took the camera and watched the bioluminescence trail off of it on the way down. There were the bat fish, right out there in the sand. There were several, and these odd little fish do have ruby red lips! From above the do look like bats. The face? Well it looks like nothing I've seen before.

We also saw stargazers, slipper lobsters, parrots and turtles all trying to sleep, and eels swimming freely about. The water was calm, and it was a lovely evening.

Dinner was late since the dive was late, a quick briefing and a slide show and it's off to bed.