We started early this morning, with a dawn dive on Crystal Rock. The sun was just coming up as we left our anchorage and sailed out to the site. As the sound from the engine rumbled around the boat, the interns slowly emerged from ether cabins, bleary eyed, but ready for today’s adventures.
We dropped into the clear water above Crystal Rock, right in the middle of a colourful, shimmering school of fusiliers. As we descended, the school parted around us, and revealed the colourful reef below.
The current was gentle this morning, and so we left the rock behind and swam out to the west. Here there is a gently sloping rubble reef at around 25m, and I hoped we would find something interesting.
And today did not disappoint! Three large whitetip reef sharks were lying stationary on the sea floor, the only movement their gills slowly pulsing. We hovered motionless, watching these sharks who seemed completely uninterested in our presence.
We returned to Crystal Rock, and slow ascended past the vibrant backdrop of enormous sponges and corals, and with shimmering fish providing a synchronised performance out in the blue water.
After the dive we sailed south, back to Karang Makassar. The tide was rising, and we hoped that the mantas would be around. We drifted slowly with the current, our team of divers spread out across the reef in our survey formation that allows a wide area to be covered whilst still maintaining good communication between buddy pairs. We peered into the water ahead, hoping to catch the flash of a manta’s wingtip. In the distance we saw one, then another, but they were too far away and traveling to quickly for us to get close enough for an ID photo.
Then suddenly there was a melanistic manta ahead of us, hovering over a cleaning station as small, colourful fish removed parasites from its skin. We ducked down behind rocky outcrops where, sheltered from the current, we watched the show. As I turned around to check our group, another manta swan over Muti’s head towards the cleaning station. I turned the other way, only to see another manta approaching. Soon we were in the middle of five giant mantas performing an intricate ballet, twisting and turning all around us. Three mantas peeled away, a female and two males, leaving the other two to return to the cleaning station.
We drifted on, recording a couple more mantas along the way. Finally it was time to surface, and return to the boat. But the mantas had other ideas. As we prepared to climb back aboard Tatawa, a manta appeared on the surface just next to me. Then another and another. We were back in the midst of a group of mantas – nine this time, all feeding on the surface.
Our final survey dive was at Sebayur Kecil. This is one of the most frequently dived sites around Komodo National Park, but if you know where to go, I think it is one of the most stunning sites. We jumped in the blue, and dropped down on top of a small rocky outcrop at 25m. We hung in the water for  few minutes, watching the swirling fusiliers and hoping to see a manta, eagle ray, or dolphin emerge out of the blue. But unfortunately on this dive we were disappointed. We slowly continued the dive, ascending past a colourful reef wall encrusted with corals, nudibranchs and myriad other small creatures.
And then it was back to Labuan Bajo. The end of our journey onboard Tatawa, and time to leave our home for the past few days. We’ve surveyed some of the more remote manta sites in Komodo National Park, improved our diving and manta survey skills, and grown closer as a team. We are all tired and ready for a day off, but also excited to see what the next three weeks has in store.
