Coral Bay Outer Reef Dive - 23rd Parallel

Coral Bay Outer Reef Dive - 23rd Parallel.
Dive #101, 17 October 2023
47 min dive time, max depth 21.9m (the site I believe was about 24m).
I really lucked out on this dive charter. Ended up being one of the best wildlife experiences I have had while diving so far. I have to thank my dive buddy Mandy for even going on it. She suggested we book while we were there in Coral Bay and I managed to book on perhaps the last spot, knowing nothing about the dive.
Apparently this particular dive had been cancelled a number of times before, due to unsuitable conditions and the rest of the boat was filled with mostly Coral Bay locals and workers.
Well the ocean life along the reef wall was marvelous and so many cool fishies. But one extra special thing happened...
In the last leg of the dive, I was filming some fishies and I happened to look up at the rest of my group and they were all looking behind me!
I look up and there above my head it seemed almost close enough to touch, is an absolutely massive Manta Ray with so many Remora fish under it and a little reefy shark following shyly.
Now this is my very first manta EVER and it was like a surreal, outer body experience, I started filming and just was completely absorbed in her the next few minutes.
This gorgeous manta swam gracefully around us for an unknowable period of time (as time stood still for me) and then swam away. We all looked at each other thinking collectively ooooooh mmmmmy goodness, that was surreal! And what an experience that had been!
And then something incredible happened... I looked in the direction she had disappeared towards only to see she had turned around and CAME BACK!!! She (from a later Google search, I belive she is a female) came back and swam over and near us again, and then again! She was so curious and intelligent, I lost my mind I just loved her so much. You could see her peering over at each of us strange bubble makers and really taking us in. I think she had a soft spot for our Divemaster Jimi though.
I think eventually, she did swim on and we had to finish our dive - though we wished we could stay all day.
We got to the surface and Jimi told us that not only was that an incredible Manta experience fullstop, but that had been an Oceanic Manta, not often seen in those parts. Jimi I think reckons she was 5m wide, and apparently they don't tend to get much past 7m (or 9 in some things I read).
When we got back to the boat, the skipper told us a humpback whale had swum right over us while we were down there too. No one but him saw or heard it but we all lost our minds again!
And on our way to the second dive spot, the skipper had to turn the engine off multiple times due to close passing whales, including a mum and baby, and later a pod of dolphins passed close by and we were on a high with happiness.
What A Day!
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[@lilylloyd-hastings5442]

Yessss, what a day this was 🤩

[@inspiredexploring]

Best day ever!!

[@leofallourd6935]

content is lit

[@inspiredexploring]

Thanks! Was an epic day!

[@JaysonDyer]

That would of been awesome to see that oceanic manta

[@inspiredexploring]

Oh it was. Still the best diving wildlife encounter I have experienced. She chose to come and say hello 💕