A Night Dive at Wakatobi:

We began the evening with the perfect sunset. The seven divers on the fifty foot dive vessel “The Waka V” raced over to the port side of the vessel to watch and photograph the golden red glow slowly drop below the horizon.

For a brief moment, a cloud covered the half-set sun, making it look like a golden vessel sailing across the horizon; something Poseidon would have been thought to sail during the time of The Parthenon. It all vanished in a flash leaving a horizon painted in deep pastel.

This evening’s dive was at Dunia Baru (“New World”), thecove where ships from the New World would come to dock so many years ago to engage in trade. This site is shallow with a world class reef that starts at 15 feet and drops to 48 feet at the base. The coral and abundance of small marine life make this dive one to remember.

Seventy minutes after our initial decent we surfaced. It was dark, with no moon to light our way. The weather was perfect and the seas were calm. Millions of stars blanketed the night sky instantly mesmerizing even the most hardened diver. The belt of the Milky Way Galaxy stretched across the heavens as seen in magazines and postcards. I saw the Southern Cross for the first time in my life. Islamic prayer echoed from the island in observance of Ramadan.

As the divers boarded the boat, little was said. Instead they laid on their backs or stood craning their necks, staring up at the heavens. In those minutes, we knew that exploring the seas was not enough. A diver’s blood boils for exploration. Space is truly the final frontier... A frontier that we can only explore in our thoughts and dreams.

As the captain started the engines on the Waka V to return to the resort, we entered into a field rich with bioluminescent plankton. The turbulence of the dive boat and its propellers excited the plankton causing them to glow and flicker. It appeared as if the water around the boat was glowing with Merlin’s mystical fire. Two small dolphins raced over to the boat to investigate, adding to the magic and making it a perfect evening.

Such is life at Wakatobi.

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