Thursday, November 25, 2010

Palau Day 4 - Thursday, November 25, 2010

We did three dives again today. We actually got an early start and headed out to German Channel to see if we could hit the tide right in order to see the mantas. Our dive master gave it a 10% chance, but we hit pay dirt and saw at least four or five mantas. The current was really ripping there, though. When I got in the water I was swimming as hard as I could and I was not going anywhere, but I finally made it down to the bottom. It was well worth the swim against the strong current.

Our second dive was at New Drop Off. There was also a pretty good current here and we saw lots of sharks and tons of fish. It is like swimming in an aquarium. We ended that dive by swimming out into open water to where there just happened to be a large school of barracuda.

Our last dive was at the famous Blue Corner. Again, there was a ripping current here also. At New Drop Off and at Blue Corner we used our reef hooks to hook ourselves into the reef and then you float above the wall like a balloon while watching the sharks and fish swim all around you. It is unbelievable how strong the current is there. It is so strong you can barely stay in one place if you swim as hard as you can. Because of the strong current there, though, there are millions of fish of all different types, sharks, schools of barracuda, schools of jacks, schools of just about everything you could imagine. It is just amazing.

Eric got some really good photos today. Unfortunately, we did not realize until we got back to our room today that all the video I shot today was somewhat zoomed in—which basically causes it to have a blurry halo around the entire shot. In other words, all of my amazing video today was pretty much trash. This is the first trip with this new housing for my camera and it requires about five different steps to get everything ready and white balance it before I can begin shooting footage. Unfortunately, I forgot to unzoom after I had white balanced. So I guess I probably won't do that again (hopefully). Luckily we have quite a few days left of diving, so I am hopeful I will get some more good manta and shark video.

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