Reflections

Either I have time travelled or else I have not been active in the water but its been more than four months since this blog has had a new post. I would like to think its the former, thus I have no reason to be depressed for not diving much, but unfortunately I have to admit its been the latter. Sitting in Sweden trying to finish off a PhD that seems to be eroding my brain rather than enhance it, my thoughts turn to the tropics. Its east coast dive season in Sri Lanka now. And whether its the shallow coral gardens of Pigeon Island and Batticaloa, or the black coral forests enveloping the majestic HMS Hermes, the tropical Indian Ocean seems a lot more inviting that the cold Baltic Sea outside my window. The ocean is so close, yet so far away.

Boiler Wreck

The 'Boiler Wreck' is in fact the wreckage of two separate ships whose identity remains unknown, possibly because very little effort has been made to investigate them. With the aura of the HMS Hermes, all other wrecks around Batticaloa are easily overlooked by most divers. But this is a great dive site with large boilers from the steam driven engines, propellors and scattered bits of wrecked metal overgrown in coral. The wrecks are located just south of the Kalladi lighthouse, and sit on the shallow reef running parallel to the shore. Both the wreck and the reef provide a habitat for  a variety of hard corals and interesting fish and macro life. A resident school of yellow lined goatfish hang out near the bow while colorful tropicals such as angelfish and butterflyfish glide among the corals. Look closely and you will find tiny porcelain crabs within the coral heads and colorful nudibranchs among the rubble. Lizardfish, sand perches, gobies and blennies compete for attention from critter fans. Most of the reef and wreck lies within a depth range of 5-8m, with a maximum depth of only 10m. So this is an ideal site for new divers to explore an interesting wreck or for experienced divers to off gas after diving the Hermes or deeper reefs further offshore.

Batticaloa Blues

After a two year break I returned to the wreck of the 'HMS Hermes' off Batticaloa. Calm seas and an absence of any wind foretold of good diving conditions, and good conditions they were for sure. Almost no currents and gin clear blue water bathed in sunlight. Drifting in open water felt like being an astronaut in space with nothing below, around or above other than vast blue emptiness and shafts of light that seemed to penetrate as deep as my eyes could see. The ocean had given me a "moment". Nirvana could surely not be much better than this!

Dance of the Jellyfish

A juvenile trevally escorts a jellyfish through the clear blue waters off Sri Lanka's east coast: As we completed our final decompression stop after a deep wreck dive we noticed numerous jellyfish swimming around us, each with its retinue of juvenile fish. Often overlooked, these fascinating and beautiful creatures were an amazing sight and wonderful distraction during a long and otherwise boring deco stop.