Day 4 - Baa Atoll

We only had two dives planned today because the captain wanted to make the crossing to North Ari Atoll in the afternoon. He made the right choice because the weather got worse as the day went on, making for another rough ocean passage. Once we reached North Ari, though, the weather improved dramatically. We saw the sun and blue sky for the first time all trip, the winds calmed down, and we had a peaceful night at anchor before our big five-dive day on Sunday.

Dive 1 - Dhonfan Thila
Camera stopped working during this dive. When I opened it up back on the boat, there were a few drops of water in the housing. Definitely need a new o-ring. Really nice swim-through at the start of the dive. Opening at 35', exit at 75'. Really fun to poke around inside. Fish highlights were a manta, Napoleon, turtle, snapper shrimp, and two morays getting cleaned by a shrimp under some coral.

Back on the dhoni, the dive crew dropped the screw-down piece of my regulator yoke overboard. Now I have to use theirs for the rest of the trip. Not happy!

Dive 2 - Horubadhoo Thila
Our last dive on Baa Atoll. Pretty much the same things we've seen before, although there were some bigger grouper & jacks. Got some really good shots of a mantis shrimp hiding in a hole. Found two grouper at a cleaning station at the end of the dive. So fun to watch the little fish dart in their mouths and out their gills.

Some shots of the seas as we crossed to North Ari. Not as bad as the first night, but still an uncomfortable 4-5 hour ride.

Day 3 - Baa Atoll

Dive 1 - Kaka Thila
Really nice dive to start the day. Strong current meant not working hard & drifting along the wall. Lots of eels, a few lionfish, and several sting rays. The first was 3-4' and swimming along the top of the reef. The second was on the sand next to a turtle. Got some really nice shots & video of the turtle. He was very patient with us taking so many pictures.

Dive 2 - Daravandhoo Thila
Two octopi! One was hiding in a hole along the wall. The second was out in the sand, so we got to see him changing color as he moved from the sand to the coral. Always amazes me how they do that. We spent a good 5 minutes or more watching & taking pictures. The end of the dive was spent surrounded by hundreds of thousands of tiny baitfish. They move like a wave or a cloud as they swim along the reef, always being watched by hungry jacks.

Dive 3 - Tupulu Wall
Long drift dive along the wall. No big fish, but one very large ray hiding under an overhang. Maybe 3-4' body and 3' tail. Very fun to watch. Lots of anemones and clownfish to play with. Hayat found one anemone totally closed up with one little clownfish peeking out from inside. Really cool! Some eels and lionfish to take more photos of. Very easy safety stop on top of the reef.

Dive 4 - Dhonfan Beru
Very relaxing afternoon dive. The clouds & rain made it necessary for us to have flashlights to be able to see at depth. Tons of giant clams. There was one or two almost everywhere you looked. I took some pictures of one group that had two large ones, one with a small one growing on the side of its shell. We came across 3 turtles during the dive, but they were much more skittish than the one this morning. Once we got within 3-4', they took off into the open water.

Only in Doha

Bernardo and I are sitting down at lunch at Thai Smile, a restaurant near the Corniche, when a security guy walks in. He starts asking people if they have a black Nissan parked out along the road. When I let him know that I think he's talking about my truck, he says I need to come with him. We head out to the road where I'm quite surprised to see that my truck is no longer there. He shows me it's now parked in the slip road lot on the other side of the street, a 6-lane one that runs parallel to the Corniche, and points me to the police officer. I asked the officer what happened, and he said the police had to move it. No explanation as to why, just that it had to be moved. Bernardo thinks the Emir must have been heading that way and they wanted to make sure no cars were parked on the side of the roads that he was traveling on. Good thing the security guy came by because I'd have been really confused had I finished lunch and found my car missing and moved like that. This place never ceases to amaze me.