Night Swimming

Imagine being in a dark, quiet, mysterious area. A flashlight guides you, but it is not enough to really see far in front of you. You turn to your left and see a wall of coral. You turn the light to the right and see a wall of fish, but beyond that…nothing. You see some movement along the bottom, and look to identify the fish.

I just returned from the first dive of my Advanced Open Water PADI training, a night dive. There were six of us on the dive. I was the only student, along with my buddy Catherine (who’s working on her divemaster, so she was assisting), and Tracy, the instructor. But then three more of the dive shop employees decided to tag along.

We entered at the shore with a nearly full moon overhead. After some struggling to get on my new fins (good thing the BC keeps you floating), we went under and began swimming. We went to 18 m along a coral reef. I saw my first turtle…he appeared to be sleeping, until we kept shining the light in his face, at which point he swam to the surface for air, then returned to the safety of the bottom. I saw an octopus pulling itself along the bottom. I saw puffer fish, opened corals, an eel, and huge schools of fish. I stayed pretty close to my buddy, Catherine, though at one point I lost her and thought one of the guys was her (hey, swim trunks can look like a shorty!). Luckily, she was right in our group, but it’s hard to see clearly in the dark.

It was an amazing experience; although I must say it did challenge some of my fears. It’s hard to see what’s beyond the reach of the light. Who knows? There might have been a giant shark there watching, thinking, “Gee, what’s that light source over there and does it taste good?”

I’m interested in returning to the site for another dive tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to see what’s there in the daylight.