TROU MOUTOU MAHEBOURG, MAURITIUS

NOT A REPETITIVE DIVE

The very next day I was diving on Trou Moutou again. The weather, sea conditions as well as the experience levels of the other divers in the group took us there. I was back diving with the old team. The familiarity of it felt comforting as it was my second dive with them during this Mauritius trip. My dive master now considered me a certified diver, and with 14 dives logged, he left me zero room for errors.

On the first dive of my trip, we took a small window of opportunity in the weather and dived on the Mahébourg Anemone Garden. I buddied up with a diver of my experience level, but equipped with a camera and flashlight. Our dive leader also had his camera. Visibility was only about five metres, there was a slight current and the reef has a gradient affecting buoyancy, a safety stop was also planned for our ascent. We had strict instructions to stay next to each other and not too far behind our dive leader because of the poor visibility.

As I am not an experienced diver, I had a lot to focus on, considering the conditions. My buddy stopped to use her flashlight and camera several times while I was focussing on either my buoyancy or something that caught my eye and in that brief moment I would end up being in front of her. At that very instant the dive master would look back and indicate to me to get next to my buddy! There was a lot of life on the reef and my technical skills weren’t bad, apart from not sticking to my buddy like the sucker of an octopus. My bad, I have learnt. Even if I see nothing on a dive, I must follow the rules. It was after this dive that I decided not to proceed with the Advanced Adventurer Course but to get more experience first.

As the last diver got into the boat, the sky that was heavy the whole morning, opened up and water was pouring down on us. It was even better than the dive! I had just surfaced from 49 minutes at 14 meters under the water, was on top of the water sitting with my back pressed up against the cabin, while water was washing over me from the sky as we raced back to the harbour! Unforgettable!

So it happened that I found myself back on Trou Moutou after having been there just the day before. It was far from being a repetitive dive! Not only because of the surface interval, but because of my improved level of comfort. For the first time I was feeling what to do, instead of thinking about my trained skills. I was able to focus on reef life and tried to take in as much as possible, while pointing out the extraordinary to my buddy and dive leader. We were only at 9 meters but visibility was at least 15 meters and the improvement of confidence in my skills – immeasurable.