“Day 3 – another amazing sunrise swim followed by breakfast and Jade’s awesome freshly brewed morning coffee (yay), which has now become part of the morning ritual I will miss .. Soooooo good #jd.thepiratechef rocks!! ….
Most fittingly the first adventure of the day was Jade’s favourite snorkeling spot – North reef nursery – after Diver Dave’s regular pre trip briefing we all jumped onto el Capitan Luke’s trusty tender and headed for the large main bombie followed by a spectacular series of coral drifts – the snorkel certainly did not disappoint we saw everything…. Beautiful coral (again ?) White tip reef sharks, turtles, ‘Wally’ the resident black spotted sting Ray, Tasselled Wobbegong (Monte discovered in a cave ?), a very large/fat ??? tawny nurse shark, big toad fish and every other fish imaginable…. Yeessss ?.
Next on the agenda we are off in search of whales…. And El Capitan Luke did not disappoint, just as we sailed outside the protection of the inner reef and into the deep blue rolling swell they materialised – 3 large humpbacks – their enormous fins waving above the swell and playfully slapping the surface…. What a sight to see these huge animals playing. Even poking their heads out of the water a couple of times to politely say ‘hello ?’.
After a good length of time Luke headed back to the sheltered waters of the inner Reef and another outstanding lunch by Jade, warm wraps Mexican beef, home made falafels, houmous, lentil salad, grated cheese, ? ?… Que in the opera singing ? sounds again Oooooooooohhhh…. Yeppp I’m in heaven, fuelled up ???and ready for the 2nd half of the day
Swimming with the Mantas OMG!! Diver Dave’s briefing got us all excited (me especially ?) I have dived with a Mantas before but not with two at once and these two were playful…. Barrel roll after barrel roll, after a while it became apparent they were very comfortable with us so The AWESOME Diver Dave gave me the good to go for free diving down to them…….Wow….. Wooo ooh… WOW… I thought I was keen ( soooooo excited) however Hannah out did us all, like Nemo and Dory she just kept swimming ?….this time it was Ninja Nicks turn to shine he stayed in the whole time with Hanna what a dude (great job ?).
After all our adventures over the past few days there was only one marine animal left on the list…. Tiger Shark ? and guess what we found on the sail to Asho’s gap dive spot…. Yep… No kidding it was a beautiful Tiger shark ??? captain Luke was just cruising along OMG… Tick ✅. (FYI We only saw it from the boat – perfectly safe!)
This only left the final destination for the day – diving Asho’s Gap – seeing the fish life, spectacular coral structures and of course the famous fish (shark) cleaning station… I Saw five beautiful reef sharks ? getting cleaned up by fish moving freely in and out of the sharks wide open mouth… It is not lost on me how they could easily be their dinner. What an incredible experience and a window into the natural events that occur just beneath the water….. What a day!!!
The dinner and company was awesome again along with a cold beer and the company of Danny, Alice, Simon, Monte, Fiona Jim and Hanna my Shark buddy ?. To Captain Luke, Diver Dave, Jade (#jd.thepiratechef) and Ninja Nick thank you…. Soooooo much! ? ? ??”
Thanks for sharing Paul! We look forward to welcoming you onboard again in the future. Next time you’ll have to bring the rest of the family!!
