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They look so content to be flying along there, underwater, completely oblivious (I hope) to the world above the water. Sometimes they find a little nook in the reef and take naps there. We have gotten to see turtles on every dive at Sipadan - and usually we get to spend quality time - they swim along with us (not just away from us). One swam straight at me and finally turned when it was about 3 feet from my mask. It is such a privilege to dive here - I highly recommend it.

We also have the privilege of diving with some very experienced divers. Shirley and Frances are two British women who are both Divemasters in ranking but dive non-professionally. Francis mentioned casually that one time she totalled up her underwater time and she has spent half a year underwater. To put it in perspective, a typical dive is around 45 minutes. Wow.

Today’s first dive brought us near some grey reef sharks and whitetip sharks. I also saw a 24″ tuna (not huge as tuna go) shoot down the reef to deeper water. The sharks don’t excite me like the turtles do, however. We’ve also seen countless schools of fish, large and small. On today’s second dive we dove very near an enormous school of 18″ jack fish - literally the school was as wide as visibility would allow viewing - all the way left to all the way right. Also, I finally saw a Barracuda chase something today - usually they just sit there watching things. I noticed it because the chase passed between me and the reef that was only 4′ away! Exciting! I also saw garden eels for the first time today - they look like little sticks anchored in the sand - but on closer inspection they have eyes and when you get closer they retreat back into their holes. Also saw an octopus but it was pretty shy - pretty dark red color, though.

Our diving skills are progressing nicely. We frequently come out of the water with the divemaster and other divers with air still left. This means settling into a calm state when down there - breathing slowly - just like they tell you to do in the dive manual but now we can actually do it. We are using the camera less and less, partly because it adds stress and distraction to an otherwise great dive. Especially when there is a current - it takes a lot of work to get yourself close enough and stable enough for a good shot - and all that work translates into more labored breathing, which yields shorter dive times since the air goes faster. The other reason the camera doesn’t come along is because the resulting pictures just don’t do justice to the whole experience Also, I have dropped quite a bit off my weight belt - I’m diving with the least amount of weight than I ever have before - and I may go lower still. I’m having fun adapting my buoyancy to the depth and just sitting cross-legged, holding my fins with my hands - almost a yoga lotus pose - and letting the current take me and just floating over stuff by controlling how much air is in my lungs. Mind you this is going on in God’s own aquarium - a 360 degree reef utopia surrounding me so there is plenty to watch as I float by.