Crossing the reef to dive Purple Cave again.

I have been out of the water for 26 days now. I feel the call of my blue underwater sanctuary every time I look at an underwater photograph or video. My 25^th dive was my last dive of my trip to Mahebourg, Mauritius. Luckily I did not know it at the time. There was therefore no sense of saying goodbye to my water, my sea view of Lion Mountain or my friends at the dive centre, as I thought I would be back the next week.

When we slowly passed Pointe d’Esny on glass like water, I was hanging over the side of the boat spotting box fish and blue green damsels in small schools on healthy young coral. Then I realised, it was 3 years and one day ago that the Wakashio ran onto the reef here and caused the tragic oil spill that I have mentioned in previous blogs. It was an absolute miracle that I was looking at growing coral and that there was any reef life visible. The song “Everything cries Holy” was echoing in my mind as I realised how big the restoration was, although relatively small in surface area. Life was returning to the reef and with it hope. The local community rely on fishing and eco-tourism to generate income and their plight has become mine, as I was welcomed into their hearts and homes.

We were crossing the reef to Purple Cave. On my previous dive of Purple Cave I was so surprised by the diverse collection of healthy coral outside the reef that my air consumption was so bad that I ended the dive on my dive buddy/the dive leader’s octo-regulator. I had to wait weeks for the weather to allow us to return. To be able to redo this dive and try to have reserve air left at the end of the dive was a personal mission! Approaching the reef, the mirror flat surface became a moving one as the energy of the waves, breaking over the reef, was carried towards us. The boat started dancing on the surface. I realised that the dive would be much different from the previous one.

Our dive party consisted of me and the dive leader followed by two other, divers. We descended above the reef. I was immediately aware of a surge and my buoyance concerned me as I felt that I was too close to the coral, fearing that I would accidently damage them. So during the descent I was adjusting my buoyancy and trying to swim away from the reef, while watching my dive leader and noticing that one of the other divers had issues with his ears and had to abort the dive.  As we reached the bottom we reorganised ourselves and continued our swim towards the cave. The surge was strong enough to take some of my attention away from coral admiration and even in the cave I was more self-aware than the previous time. Although the cave is more of a long arch with openings on both sides, the movement of the surge was enough to cause an inattentive diver to be moved onto sensitive marine organisms. So my focus was on controlling my position and trim as we navigated the cave.

Outside the cave we were surprised by an abundance of fish. Not only surprising in diversity but also in size! Yes, my mermaid Blue Parrot fish and the brightly black and yellow bannered Moorish Idols were there, but also yellow and blue thinly striped adult Emperor Angel fish, bright yellow Teardrop Butterfly fish and my yellow Trumpet fish. A spotted Guineafowl Blaasop Balloon fish surprised me in size and a school of bright orange Blotcheye Soldier fish cowered under a rock overhang. Then I saw it, the high light of the dive! My first sighting of a Clown Trigger fish! It appeared larger than the Butterfly fish, was stylish in black with large white circular spots on the bottom half of the fish. Yellow markings on the tail and around the dorsal fin, as well as applied like yellow lipstick around its mouth were the designer’s finishing touches. The most exquisite underwater living art I have seen in the form of a fish! A great barracuda swimming by, flashing silver, did not even make me turn my head after the sighting of the Clown Trigger fish.

We ended the dive with a safety stop and I was thrilled to still have 50 bars in my tank after the 64 min dive at 19 meters! Crossing the reef to Purple Cave did not disappoint, nor did the tea and peanut butter cookies back at the dive centre while spotting our sightings in Austral’s Marine Life of Mauritius!

By Lynette Gerber-Lochenkov