Ready! Ok go! I lean back and fall, lifting my legs so I clear the side of the boat. Kersplash! I am in the water, the coolness enveloping me relieving the heat of sitting too long in a wetsuit in the sun.
We go down down down to 17 m. I’m checking that Murray is descending not too far away from me. Saedi (Sa-ee-dee) is ahead and is descending too. On this last dive we are going to drift down a channel and see what we can find. The guys hope to see a shark, or a turtle, or something else big. I will settle for anything but a shark. Not my favorite marine critter.
The current is slow but noticeable. We drift and watch the movie play below and around us. Saedi uses his pointer to coax a leopard eel to stick its head out of its hole. I spot a juvenile Oriental Sweetlips and marvel at the brilliant yellows, oranges and blacks on its body. We find a shrimp of some sort in a hard coral, but because of the current cannot stick around to take a close look.
Saedi waves us over and nudges what looks like a piece of corral. It starts to move and morphs into an octopus! The octopus travels effortlessly a few feet and morphs back into its surroundings. We are all amazed at the octopus’ ability to disguise itself.
I glance over at Murray and he seems to have picked up two clown fish. He must have swum too close to their anemone and they are swimming around his face. These two are not the Nemo sized clown fish but are about 8 cm long, with black, white and orange stripes. They decide they have scared him away and swim back home. I thought he had made some fish friends!
Saedi is pointing madly to the left. I see a rather large octopus gliding over the sand around some coral. It looks to have its legs tucked under him as I cannot see the full tentacle. He glides about 7 m and stops and does his disguise trick. I have never seen an octopus moving in the open like that.
Before we know it, we are doing our safety stop and then ascending to the surface. The bright sunlight waits us to warm us up and welcome us to the boat.
Walking to school along the beach