Strangers in the Night - Night Diving
As the sun sets, a blanket of darkness begins to cover the reef. In the last
minutes of light, the reef explodes into action. Many of the reef creatures
who busily went about their daily lives during the day now frantically search
for protection. The loud, reef crushing noise of the Parrot fish seizes as they
rest on the bottom encased in their own transluscent cocoon.
All around me I watch as some of the apex predators spring into action
chasing schools of fish around the reef. Now is the time for many of them to
feed. The reef's activity explodes like that of a city after winning the World
Series. Before long my eyes can no longer discern the shapes around me. A black,
tar-like darkness quickly falls upon the reef. The beam of light from my underwater
flashlight illuminates the way while the bright lights originating from the M/V
Shear Water attracts a hoard of creatures. Stingrays swim in circles around the
comfort of this light in search of crustaceans. From a distance I can just barely
make out the distinct arrow-like shapes of the school of Barracudas lingering
between light and dark.
Almost instantly the water around me becomes alive! My sudden movements cause
a chain reaction of phosphorescence to illuminate before me. As I swing my flashlight
in all directions trying to make out these strange apparitions, I can see that
it is the intense beam from my flashlight that attracts these bioluminescent
creatures. Small, white worm-like creatures propel themselves in a frenzied corkscrew
manner. Occasionally I feel one collide against my skin as it explodes in light.
Like the bright colors of a flower to a bee, the light emitting from my flashlight
becomes a homing beacon for all creatures small and large. On one dive I recall
a large shadow slowly approaching me. As it inches its way closer to me, for
a split second before I can make out its shape, deep in my consciousness my imagination
quickly takes flight. Jim Abernethy's stories of night encounters with Great
Hammerhead sharks echo loudly in my subconscious. Luckily (or unlucky) this
is not the case, for it is no one other than the friendly and charismatic Loggerhead
turtle that has made its home at the Sugar Wreck.
Slowly investigating every nook and cranny, a discernible
voice echoes in stereo around me. I pause my breathing
for a second to try to decipher it. It takes me but a fraction
of a second to understand who it was coming from and what
it was saying. "Laz!
Come here. Laz!" The
voice repeats over again. Covering my light, I wait for
my eyes to readjust to the darkness as the faint glow of
a flash light hovers in midwater some distance from me.
I slowly swim in its direction. Jimmy hovers near
a coral as he continues to repeat himself. As I approach
the area he is illuminating with his light my eyes grow
in awe over what I'm observing. Like the dress and beauty
of a Spanish Dancer, the dazzling pattern of colors on the
nudibranchs before me bedazzle me. All the
while they appear to gently glide above the soft corals.
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