The dive boat picked us up at 0730. The boat is really nice by Indonesian standards. Like most Indonesian boats we have seen, it is all wood, but better maintained than most. It is relatively quiet compared to the majority of the boats around here, which seriously sound just like helicopters with their super loud one cylinder engines. We went with a company called Dive Komodo. There were two dive masters, two deck hands, and 9 passengers. There were some sweet rolls out, as well as coffee and tea and a cooler with water and soda.

The ride out to the north side of Komodo Island took 2 ½ hours. We anchored and looked at the site. It was a large rock. You could see the current rapidly flowing around both sides of the rock, with a calmer area in between the two streams on either side of the back of the rock. When we say rapidly flowing, we mean if you get caught in it you will be helplessly whisked away with little hope of swimming out of it. There were also several whirlpools within the rapids on each side. It looked scary. Granted, it is a new moon so the current is stronger today than other times of the month, but we are sure it is always dangerously strong. One of the dive masters, Nick, briefed us, warning us to stay within the calm area. He also warned there would be a small amount of counter current within the area we were diving in.

We suited up and hopped in. Just from sticking your face in the water on the surface, you could see the site was spectacular. It is a wall dive, and there were millions of fish around the wall, with literally dozens of varieties. It was overwhelming to try and figure out all the different fish you were seeing because there were just so many to look at. We saw some new fish we hadn’t seen before, along with species we have seen, such as giant angel fish, sweetlips, soldierfish and a couple of reef sharks. The dive master had a camera and took some great pictures for us.

There was a large variety of coral, in lots of pretty colors. The water clarity was comparable to Vanuatu and the Great Barrier Reef, which is pretty darn good, but not crystal clear like the Tuomotus or Niue. Later, the dive master said that the water clarity was usually much better here and they were surprised it wasn’t clearer. Christi had a hard time equalizing, but since the views were just as good up higher as they were down lower, she didn’t miss out on anything by taking a long time to get down.

The area we could swim around in wasn’t very big, so we got to look closely at the aquatic life, rather than being rushed along as we so often are. We saw some lion fish hiding in the coral, as well as a nudibranch. We saw the biggest puffer fish we have ever seen in our lives, as well as a giant napoleon wrasse. The most exciting moment of the dive was seeing two sea turtles. Christi got so close to one of them that she could have easily touched it, but was careful not to because she knew it would run off. She couldn’t believe the turtle let her get as close as he did.

The “small amount of countercurrent” was quite a bit stronger than we had anticipated, and at times we had to swim at full force to fight against it. We can’t imagine how bad it would be if we were caught up in the main current. It was definitely a smart idea to go with a professional dive company that knew the area. We never could have done this on our own.

Once the dive was done and everyone was back on board, they took us to where the big manta rays live. From the boat we saw at least two dozen giant manta rays a good seven feet wide. We had no idea they could get so big, and were surprised to find out they get up to 20 feet wide. We also saw a couple of large sting rays from the boat. We suited up yet again, this time to go snorkeling with the Mantas.

To be continued”¦