Coral Bay, part 2.

2 April 2012

April 2nd.

F** me ! 370AUD for a day out at sea, it better be worth it !
So we gear up, I have my own suit, mask and snorkel but I still need a pair of fins (I’ll buy one in Asia) so I inherit a shiny light blue pair of short ass fins… Nice.

Off to the boat and off we go. It’s a powered catamaran, fairly comfy though, save for the engine noise, and we stop first on the reef to make sure everyone is comfortable in the water. I spot a few familiar species of fish and coral, after two years in New Cal I got to know a couple, not that I ever remembered their names though. It’s also different from the lagoon around NC, no soft corals, less colors and more sea-grass. There is no ciguatera here either, which I guess is a big bonus for spearfishing, yet the reef is marine sanctuary so no touching, picking up, or fishing around here.
At 10AM, we’re told our spotter plane (yes, sharks are spotted by a small plane which then tells the boat their location) has left the airfield and with luck we should be seeing a couple very soon…

Well, 2h later, still no show, so lunch is on, but as we’re about to tuck in, suddenly it’s mayhem on board. Quick quick, everybody get ready, get your gear, group one, on the manifold, one two three, GO ! Group two, on the manifold, wait for it, GO ! And off in the water we jump, hoping the person behind you doesn’t land on your head, and quickly I swim to the shark. And there it is, in all it’s glory, calm, smooth, placid, and f**ing huge too ! This one is about 4m long, but at the third dive, boy it’s a big fat one !

There is just no word to describe this, they’re absolutely massive, about the size of a bus, but they’re so calm and fluid, and since they eat only plankton and small shrimps, much like whales, they’re just not interested in you. They just swim by, let you peek at them then down they go. They’re big, they’re beautiful with their white spots on the skin, and their enormous mouth.

Four times we got lucky, that’s apparently a good day. They come here from April to September. Only the young ones come to see the humans, the old bulls tends to know better and stay deep. I think the fourth spotting was the same as the second one, though they all had similar sizes.
Anyways. EPIC !

By the second dive, ten people onboard out of the 19 were seasick so the remaining valid ones we actually had more dive time. Bonus 🙂

Distance today : 1km, total: 8284km