Just another day in paradise! Up again before our morning knock, I had a cup of coffee while watching the boat come awake. Then our morning briefing at 7a and immediately onto the dhoni to start diving.

This morning we were diving on a large pinnacle reef called Bukhara Thila. Unfortunately there were 2 other dive boats already there so it was a fairly busy site and I was disappointed at the large group of Japanese divers who all had gigantic camera arrangements, and were banging into the reef as they tried to get that magical shot. And there wasn’t even any current they could blame this on. Photographers become so myopic diving they often don’t realize the damage they do.

We started deep, as you do, passing over a field of large gorgonias (sea fans), then rising to swim along a nice wall full of small corals and fish. I saw a couple of moray eels, a few small black tip sharks, a large ray, some huge purple-stalked anemones with families of clown fish (ie. Nemo) darting in and out of their waving arms. Nothing was outstanding today but it still was a very nice dive.

At breakfast we were told we were entering whale shark territory and to be ready to dive at moment’s notice. If the tanks have been refilled we’ll dive, else just snorkel. Very exciting! By 10:30a we hadn’t seen any whale sharks so we had our next dive briefing – we would go out in the dhoni, look for WS for 30 minutes and if we don’t find any we’d go down for a nice reef dive, which is exactly what we did.

We made sure to finish the dive with sufficient air left in our tanks for another quick dive; and so after the dive we set out again to look for whale sharks, heading to scan the bottom perimeter of the Ari Atoll (see map below).

No sightings, so back to Theia for lunch, bringing our snorkel gear with us in case a whale shark is spotted so we can jump right in. This WS hunting is serious business! Again nothing, so we moved locations and at 2:30p we were back in the dhoni. Apparently other boats in the area had seen some sharks so we all geared up so we could immediately launch into the water once we got to the right spot. It was a mad scramble! Not quite a scrum but near enough; and not just our boat but another boat was dropping divers left & right, hardly slowing down, and another released a torrent of snorkelers. The poor shark didn’t know what was going on. I heard from reliable sources that it took one big gulp and sped away but I never saw a thing beyond the tangle of flailing limbs.

We aborted that dive after 12 minutes, climbing back in the dhoni to go searching again. Once spotted we made the same dash to get in, then we all kicked madly in one direction before suddenly changing and course 90° and kicked madly that way. I’m sure no one had any idea where the poor thing was; we were just lemmings following whoever was in front of them. Eventually we formed a small group of 7 and my dive master led us on a sedate reef dive for about 30 minutes. Never again for me. If we’re so lucky to spot another I’m staying on the surface and taking pictures with my phone, not stalking the poor creature.

We got back to the boat around 4:30p and after a shower we were told we were heading to a local island so we could go ashore for a bit. It turns out one of the dive masters lives here, so he guided us down the main street, pointing out the police station, mosque, and the souvenir shop where his wife works. We didn’t get to meet her, I assume Fatou had the night off to visit. It was just turning 6p so it quickly got dark. By 7:15p we were thankful the little boat arrived to return us to the Theia.

Back on board I had to dig into my emergency cashews as there was no sign of dinner any time soon. At 7:50p the Spanish contingent invited everyone to the bar for a gin & tonic. Finally at 8:30p = dinner. By that time I wasn’t very hungry anymore so I didn’t do justice to the meal and I was the 2nd to excuse myself for bed.