April 5

Yesterday we did not do much, to aid in my recovery. We started a load of laundry, then went breakfast at Blue Moon. We had one continental, one “Disk Mashuni,” a Maldivian Dish. On the way back to our place, we stopped by a shop and bought a pineapple, a big Coke, and hot and spicy chips. At our place, we hung our laundry to dry and vegged. I am feeling better, yeah. I hope to go diving tomorrow. We made our own lunch out of our leftover rice – stir-fried with half of the pineapple, and a crushing of the chips for some spice. The dish turned out pretty decent for it's “impromptuness.” It did rain around – twoish (?). We watched some You tube and just relaxed. Then went back out for supper to Monalaz Beach Cafe for another 'dinner and show'. We did see the Rays, but it was to cloudy for a sunset. We had a coleslaw and a chicken mushroom pizza. We got couple of pieces of pizza as takeaway, cause we could not eat it all. Then we went to the dive shop and got me registered to dive tomorrow! 👍

Today, we awoke at 0455 from the loudspeaker, calling Muslims to prayer! It is pouring rain – humm… hopefully won't change our plans. I was able to go back to sleep until 0619 – on minute before the alarm. We got up and around…  going diving!!!  I am excited and a skosh apprehensive.

We left by 0655, and met the boat. It is a full boat of divers (boat holds twenty – we have got to be close to max). We loaded up and found our gear. Jeff is at the back of the boat I'm at the front, but we are on the same side. They had already set him up. But I had to do mine (They always make you do it the first time to make you you know your stuff. Jeff came and helped me anyway, due to too tightly screwed stuff.) We are in for two dives this morning. We arrived at our first dive site and had our briefing. The dive is called Hudhu Thila. Then we geared up and jumped in.

Felt great going in, but I had trouble going down from the start ☹️ (I needed more weight on my weight belt.) I basically had to go down head first to go down. Then Jeff ended up holding my hand to help keep me down. To complicate my situation, my mask kept filling with water, but I figured that out finally – my strap was barely on my head. And lastly (because I needed something else to be wrong), there was quite a bit of current. I'm still weaker than I thought, having trouble keeping up. Jeff was pulling me forward some, as well as keeping me down! So he was working extra hard. We did spot a sting ray sitting on the bottom. I pointed out a moray eel. But that's all that sticks out for me.

One of the dive guides had been sticking by me from the start because of my troubled descent. At one point I signaled to my weight belt, hoping she might have extra weight. Either she did not have any or did not understand my gesture. Anyway, she called Jeff and I up early (with another guy who seemed to be having issues as well.) I still had half a tank of air left, but I was tired! 😔  Our stats – depth about 25 meters (82 feet) for 25  minutes. Once on board, it felt like a bit of a failed dive, and I actually told Jeff I did not know if I was up for another dive. He encouraged me to go on the next one. Since we were on the boat before most everyone else, we ate the left over pizza, and a couple of cake snacks from our place that had we brought with us. I added more weight to my belt. The others came on board and the boat moved to our next site.

Okay, briefed on our second dive, Kudarah Thila. We geared up and in the water with another giant stride off the boat. Yeah! It felt so much better!!! I was going down proper and my mask was better. I enjoyed this dive, immensely!! This is a healthy reef! We saw so much (I'm just going to name a few):  White-tipped Sharks; Batfish; Bluefin Trevally; Giant Trevally; Red Hind; Oriental Sweetlips; many different Butterfly Fish; Dark Banded Fusiliers; Parrot Fish; Moorish Idols and Clown Fish – like ones in Finding Nemo; Clown Triggerfish; Yellow Speared Trumpetfish; a couple kinds of Filefish, including babies at 12 meters (39 feet); and lastly a very large school of Blue-striped Snapper. This snapper is a very yellow fish and the number of them was overwhelming. They were massed over a coral plateau, and you could swim with them in and around. It felt like sitting in a field of swirling yellow flowers! There was all kinds of coral – hard and soft. One soft one was very pink/purple. It did not look real. This dive also had a couple of great overhangs and a hole-swim-through place. The whole dive was very special. The guides called for everyone to come up for our safety stop – POOH! I still had 90 bar of air – just under half! But I noticed how tired I was when we doing the stop, so it was time to end. After time was up for the safety stop, everyone was all just hanging out. I looked at Jeff and signaled up, as some other divers peeled off and up too.

WOW!  What a DIVE!!  💯!!!  I felt like I got my dive groove back💃!  Everyone loaded up and we went back to Dhangethi Island harbor. I was still excited, tired, but man oh man…

We unloaded and went to try for our free breakfast – it was just after 1130 when breakfast was to close. As we were going to restaurant, a lady gave Jeff and I each a reed origami fish and bird she had made. She's a shop owner and tried yesterday to lure us into her shop. We took them, thanking her. It was a nice gesture – much appreciated.  Arriving at the Blue Moon, the waiter guy saw us and let us order. We both got Disk Mashuni, which is a Naan with coconut (Disk) served with a tuna salad – tuna all small flaked with grated coconut; and bits of red onion, chilies, curry leaves, and salt. (It was one we had ordered yesterday, but I forgot to describe it.) This is so good, light and filling, and great seasoned taste. What a great day it has been, and it is still (just barely) morning!

After we ate, we went back to our place. We showered and then I blogged and Jeff read. Then a much needed Siesta Time, baby!!  Then we went out around 1630 and slowly walked around the perimeter of the island. Next we went to Blue Moon for supper, as the sunset evolved again. We ordered one Fish and chips and one Valhomas Kothu Roshi, which is another local dish using Chapati (or roti) cut in strips, like noodles; sauteed with cabbage, carrots, onions, chillies, ginger, a bit of tomato paste, dark soy sauce, and other spices; then add quarter size pieces of smoked tuna (valhomas); and top with fried egg.  This last dish was so complex and hit our spots!! 

Finished, we watched a bit more of sunset and walked the pier for final view. What an excellent day!!! Glory be to our Creator – what an imagination!