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(Continued from page 2)
the harbor just outside the marina - rats.
When we arrived at the dive site, our DM Mike Milligan (I know, I think everyone over there is named Mike) gave us our predive brief. We were to descend to the seafloor and gather in a group then the five of us were to point our (dive shop supplied) massive divelights up towards the surface, the light would attract the plankton and the Mantas would come in for a feast, swimming right over our heads and performing loops in the column of light. During the brief, a Manta surfaced right next to the boat and swam around for a bit as if to say "get in here! I'm hungry!" The preferred method of entry was a back roll off the edge of the boat, but first the captain (Mike) had to look over our shoulders to ensure we wouldn't land on any unsuspecting rays! I gathered up myself together (my mask strap ALWAYS comes off on a back entry) and immediately descended into the darkness, our friendly ray was nowhere to be seen.
Our little group formed up under the boat and low and behold the ray returned, we had not set up our lights yet and he made just a few passes before he disappeared. After waiting around a few minutes for his return, Mike (our DM) decided to move us over to where the other dive boats had set up shop.
About halfway there Mike stopped and started playing around a small coral head, we all swam over to him to get a closer look. There, tucked nice and tight in the coral was a small lionfish about four inches long, just kind of hanging out. After a few minutes checking him out we continued over to where you could see the other divers lights in the dark waters. Night diving has always fascinated me, the fact that the only things you see really well are brightly illuminated in your dive lights, and there is also the spooky sense that anything could be behind you, and you wouldn't know. All the predators come out at night. Adding to that spooky feeling was the two video divers from the other boats, roaming around with multiple lights pointing in all directions. Strange, but us divers are in general a strange group of people.
When we arrived at the site with all the other divers, our little group grabbed a nearby rock and sat with our lights pointing up. Nothing.
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