Today’s dives with Sea Rovers at Menjangan were fantastic, although the first one didn’t start off so well. Right after jumping in at Eel Garden, I was adjusting my strobe arms when my modeling light fell off. It started sinking fast, but this new piece of equipment cost me close to 500 bucks, so I couldn’t just let it go without a fight. I rocketed down after it–not knowing if this wall ended on a sandy bottom or if it was over the abyss. Staring at my depth gauge as I went deeper and deeper and clearing my ears frantically, I finally saw the hazy outline of a sand patch. Whew, I wasn’t going to lose that light today, although I ended up at 136 feet to retrieve it.

So, I slowly ascended to meet up with the other divers; both of them gave me worried signals of ‘Are you OK?’ and I assured them that all was fine. By the time I caught up with them, they had found a trio of giant frogfish, so I caught my breath and started shooting. Later in the dive, I was hoping to photograph the giant sand patch of garden eels for which this dive site is named. Since there was little-no current, the eels were not out; but when we turned the corner, I found the turtle resting in the sand. I think both the photos of the frogfish and the ascending turtle will end up in my portfolio–I was very pleased with them.

During the surface interval, I chided the divemaster–‘why didn’t you try to catch my light?’ He laughed and said that there was no way he was going to catch up with me at the rate I was swimming–and he knew that there was a sandy bottom there (wish I’d known that)!

 

Dive log: Menjangan

Eel Garden / Max depth: 136 feet / Time: 45min

Underwater Cave / Max depth: 75 feet / Time: 55min