Previous night dives have typical included five to six divers. On this one there was just the two divemasters and myself. Having said this, when I hopped into the water, my first thought was how dark it was. The fact that my torch was rather dim compared to the divemasters' didn’t help any. If I briefly thought this was dark, I was about to get a lesson in real darkness.
After descending and swimming a brief distance we arrived at the channel filled with tall pinnacles and mushroom shaped formations rising up from the depths. My eyes were beginning to adjust the darkness when it appeared we were headed straight into a mountain. My guides ascended up and over, head first down the other side as I followed.
One of the dive masters turned off his light and the other motioned for me to do the same. After I turned mine off, he turned his off and we were in total darkness. He began to swim away from me and I followed. How was able to do this? His fins seemed to throw off sparkles with each kick. The phosphorescence of the water created these pixie-dust, magical sight. I was so fascinated; I nearly had tunnel vision while following his lead.
The icing on the cake was surfacing to our little skiff to have a blanket of stars twinkling in the sky with dipper in plain view. The warm breeze on my face as looked up at the sky made even a simple return ride back very pleasant.