Colour deceives continually - but nowhere more so than underwater.
However, this has nothing to do with our ability to count below the surface where, today, I counted roughly 500 Kingfish! Nevertheless, seeing 500 Kingfish, packed tightly, tests even one's own credulity and perception - yet that is exactly what we saw and that scene was real. It was just one of many unbelievable scenes we saw today.
Dive 1 Blue Fish Point: This dive commenced quietly, smoothly, and with no hint of what we would experience. Only the odd Maori Wrasse and the odd other fish appeared to show that we were not alone. Perseverance and curiosity, nevertheless, led us forward. Soon black lines, dashes, appeared above us: Yellowtail, silhouetted against the light, started to appear, but nothing more. It seemed our effort and exploration would, on this occasion, not yield any potent scenes we have become addicted to seeing. It must be said, however, that the pleasure of diving does not need anything more than its fundamental delights: the feeling of weightlessness bringing on a sensation of floating, flying or gliding, within a world of quietude and serenity. These are rewards enough for diving into the sea and under its waves - especially on a beautiful day like today. These thoughts were, however, rudely interrupted by the suddenness of swirls, cascades, and curtains of silver and gold. A large school of Pomfrets swallowed us up, expelled us, and then enveloped us over and over again. Yellowtail intersected this ethereal quilt produced with Byzantine gold and silver thread. Only a large Bull Ray could snap us out of the dream-like state induced by such fish, en masse, doing the things they did. The Bull Ray was marvellous and awe inspiring but so were the schools of fish all around us. Four Kingfish slid into and out of that constantly evolving scene - creating their own flourish and place in our memory.
Returning to the boat, we saw juvenile Immaculate Damsels, whose iridescence always catch the eye; a Senator Wrasse, acting senatorial and respectable, especially alongside a Snakeskin Wrasse, and a Sergeant Baker who strut a pose, commensurate to his rank being a part of his name. And a Grey Nurse shark appeared and then disappeared!
Our second dive was at Old Man's Hat. It seemed unlikely we would be able to have experiences comparable those from our first dive - so special as they were. But how wrong could one be!
The water was noticeably blue as we meandered through colourful sponge gardens. Violet and Blue Sea Tulips contrasted against red dreadlocks-shaped sponges. A Colonial Ascidian in brilliant orange and white reminded us of it being a reputed link between vertebrates and invertebrates. One Wobbegong shark revealed only its tail, whilst a less shy one, showed off its entire body in Persian rug patterns.
We slipped into a swim through and slowly examined its interior, careful to record the details of its wall and ceiling coverings as much as its inhabitants. We circumnavigated the towering adjacent reef outcrop, before seeing a school of Old Wives, then a school of Pomfrets in front of us, and One Spot Pullers populating the hollowed reef below. Moving one hundred and eighty degrees around the reef outcrop, we had no choice but to stop and admire a particularly beautiful school of Longfin Pike resplendent in silver garb: we admired it a lot. Looking now 90 degrees to our left, a large school of Yellowtail Kingfish swam across our vision, as if not to be missed - but youwould have missed them if you were looking the wrong way. As stated before, it is always easy to look the wrong way and to miss a once-in-a-lifetime scene underwater. I did not want to miss anything! But then that school was gone - almost as quickly as they had appeared. Wishing them to reappear was not going to make it happen - which did not stop me wishing for it all the same.
We were underwater a long time and it was now time to ascend to do our safety stop. Better to do this higher up the reef so that we could still enjoy sights and scenes around us than simply floating in a water column of just that - water. The decision was a good one, as now to our right, we saw a glorious school of Mado fluttering and being in the moment right next to us. Then turning to look to our left, the most unlikely, amazing, and unbelievable sight, on this dive, came into view: about 500 or more Kingfish, tightly packed, swam east-west, making the area below dark by virtue of not allowing any light to pass through them to the area below. So many Kingfish, and yet even in that huge number, they would not stop and stay still for us to examine, appreciate, and be dazzled by longer. That's not quite right, seeing such a spectacle left us dazzled even once they had disappeared. Like so many scenes underwater, the only thing to show for certain extraordinary scenes encountered is a precious sensation of having experienced something unique and incredible. David could not dive today and I know he will almost die when he learns what he missed out on. As I said to someone recently, a reason I dive each week is due, in part, to avoid the certainty of real regret of missing out on so many amazing things underwater each week. Today was proof of just that. Sublime pleasure is so much better than eternal regret!
