Friday, October 1, 1999

Tahiti Dive: Moorea; Shark Gallery


This time we saw a more serious shark, a lemon shark that was about 8 feet long. It stayed away from us, the closest we got was 30 feet away. Also saw a pair of the massive triggerfish, I love them! And 2 sailfin tangs. They are among my favorites!

Thursday, September 30, 1999

Tahiti Dive: Moorea: Ledges


More black-tipped reef sharks, quite close - about 4-6 feet away! Another huge moray eel. My first time seeing those super-sized trigger fish. Didn't even know they existed! They were about 18" long. A sleeping lionfish and a turtle swimming away (didn't get a good look at that one). Then another big fat moray, which someone pulled out of its hole and wrestled with! Idiot.

Wednesday, September 29, 1999

Tahiti Dive: Bora Bora daytime


Our next cruise dive was Bora Bora during the day. Saw my first shark in the ocean, a black-tipped reef shark. That got some adrenaline going! Also saw a big fat moray eel, swimming and being cleaned. A crown of thorns starfish :-( 2 lionfish, and some shrimp in the coral. A great dive!

Tuesday, September 28, 1999

Tahiti Dive: Bora Bora at night


This was our first dive on the cruise, which happened to be a night dive off of Bora Bora. Yes, I tried another night dive and this time I had my own light! It was really something. We saw a sleeping parrotfish, and eel swimming, 2 snakes swimming, slipper lobsters, lionfish, shrimp, a very slow trunkfish, 3 huge anenomes, and starfish urchins. When we found the trunkfish we basically surrounded it and all had our lights on it. Poor guy had nowhere to go! So I flipped my light off hoping it would swim over to me, and it did, it came right over! :-)

Friday, September 24, 1999

Tahiti Dive: Turtle, barracuda


This was the dive by the pre-cruise hotel in Tahiti. We saw a turtle, a blue urchin, and a group of barracuda with a cleaner wrasse. It was great. But nothing topped that whale! :-)

Tahiti: Whale!


While we were staying at the hotel pre-cruise, we decided to do a warm-up dive. On the boat going out to the dive sight, the guide slowed the boat down for no apparent reason and told us to hush. Then, right in front of us about 20 feet away, a whale surfaced! It was absolutely amazing. We were so awed. We tried to grab our snorkels and jump in so the boat could pull us along and we could see it underwater, but we splashed too much getting in and it left.