King of the Castle - 07/04/2016

With what the Americans call Spring Break upon us my wife and I have headed for the Tropic of Capricorn and the tropical island of Mauritius. Before arriving I had contacted a local dive company called Just Diving led by a keen underwater photographer Olivier Fayolle. It turned out to be a great choice.

On this the first day I went diving alone and after a flash of my ScotSAC Master diver card was immediately accepted into the fold as an official Dive Ninja which meant that we were going to a more advanced site - Kingfish Castle.

We loaded onto the small Just Diving boat and headed out through the lagoon to the channel that exists between Mauritius and Coin de Mire Island.

By the time we hit the site the swell was up at around 2.5m (3m in my head) and as someone who isn't a huge fan of boats I was starting to feel nervous. I shouldn't have though. I've done this stuff before and survived....and enjoyed it.

We rolled back - negative entry - and immediately I saw the large rock beneath surface pushing up the waves. We dropped down in a considerable surge to 32m and headed for the small cave where Olivier knew the Kingfish lived.

They were there. We admired them for a few minutes before working our way back to the boat pick up, watching a free swimming Moray on the way. However, it was the end of the dive that threw up the most interesting encounter. As we sat at around 6m doing our safety stop beneath us something was moving at around 20m. A shark, too far way to photograph I watched, it potter about, before continuing with its day. 

As I posted on Facebook after the encounter, 

"Today I saw a white tip reef shark, it hovered beneath us as we floated in the deep blue. We regarded one another before it went about its business. Sharks are extraordinary, we need to protect them."

From there it was back into the boat and off to Eden Reef, a very pleasant but relatively fluffy reef dive on the outer edge of the Mauritian lagoon. Here, the only thing that happened was that Olivier made me the subject of one of his photographs - an image I'll treasure.

Me

Starfish

School of fish

Kingfish

Day 4 - Oh The Shark Has Pretty Teeth Dear – 21/11/2014

So today's dives were over three epic reefs:

• Shark & Yolanda reef
• Jackfish Alley
• Gordon Reef

I won’t lie, at the start of the day I had lost heart. One turtle, a couple of moray eels but little else – other than the myriad of life one comes to spectacularly ignore. The Zookeeper and I wanted sharks, dolphins and or more turtles. And as I said, we’ve only had one turtle.

Shark & Yolanda passed with just more of the same stuff (although the cargo of cludgies spread over the sea bed when the Yolanda sank is impressive). Jackfish Alley had a nice short stretch of cavern penetration but little else. In essence, I was sweeping by some of the finest reefs on the planet and was bored. Then came Gordon Reef.

Getting swept along with the current I finally relented and said a prayer. Here is what I prayed:

“God, I’d really like to see a shark in a non-threatening, exciting, safe way. Can you do that?”

No sooner had I thought the prayer when I heard the Zookeeper’s furious rattle. I looked round thinking “Turtle”, only to see her signalling shark. My brain instantly thought “Turtle Shark?! Wait that’s not even a real shark.”  Afterwards, the Zookeeper revealed she too had been "asking the Universe for something big".

Then  I saw it. First, I saw the main body followed by white tipped fin. A white tip reef shark. After that the dive was over mentally . I couldn't think of anything else. Even as I went down for my night dive, I knew the day was complete.

I've attached both the Zookeeper and I's videos of the encounter. You'll notice I kept the Zookeeper and myself between the shark - my video is entirely rubbish, but when you see the Zookeepers bubbles you'll realise how strong the current was we were fighting. Smart thinking.

Clam

More Yolanda Wreckage

Weird Anemone

Jewel Fairy Basslets

Cavern Penetration

Free Swimming Moray

Hunting Lionfish