 Today is wall day. The
winds are cooperating and the Oleanda makes her way to Bikien
Pass. The water is calm and our drift dive turns into a
lazy swim dive with the absence of any current. The wall is
formed against huge fingers of coral jutting downward between
sandy gullies and small caves.
There is so much to see that its difficult to decide on
video or still, wide angle or close up or just drift along in
wonder at everything we are experiencing. Schools of
Unicorn fish, with and without horns, switch from white to
black in front of our amazed eyes. What looks like swarms of
tiny pink and purple fish make the visibility look a little
fuzzy until they part and you see the blue beyond them.
Reluctantly we have to surface but there is more to come. |
After lunch we dove the wall at
Jaboan, just off the west end of Rongelap Island. On good
days, it is possible to walk off the beach for this dive but
we make the trip from the Oleanda launch. A few curious
sharks approached, swam around and then left for more
interesting scenery. Several sea turtles were spotted here,
both on the surface and along the wall. This area has been
suggested as the perfect location for a Marine Park and we
agree that it has everything you would want. Colorful parrot
fish seem to like this area more than some of the other dive
sites and we also saw hundreds of Christmas Tree worms living
on the coral heads. The variety of coral at Jaboan is
impressive and there are Pelagic fish that cruise the area.
Last year we saw a fair sized Dogtooth tuna here and on this
dive we spotted a small tuna heading to deeper water.