Coolidge Night Dive

I'm not a great fan of night dives but a few people had raved about this one on the Coolidge so we thought we'd better do it. We are picked up at the Deco Stop Lodge late in afternoon and are taken to the usual set up area. It is dusk and getting dark quickly. We finish setting up by torch light and then we are into the water and headed down the line to the bow. At this point I am quite apprehensive We follow our guide Michael along the bow and over the side and down into cargo hold 2. We are shown where to hang on to, then we have to turn off all our lights and we float there in the pitch dark. We had been told that we would float in the one place for about ten minutes and not to let go of the support beam we were hanging onto.

So what makes this a special night diver. When all the lights are out the show begins. Bright flashes of light, many thousands of them winkle in and out all around us - above and below. It is awesome. These flashes are made by fish that dart around in the hold at night. We are just in awe of this absolutely amazing phenomenon. We were at 30m so this becomes a decompression dive fairly quickly. After the allotted time our guide turns his light on and we do too. We then swim off, back through cargo hold 1 and back to do our deco stops. Of course we are very familiar with the deco stop area but it is amazing at night. Creatures come out in abundance. The day creatures are all gone but the night ones come out. At one area there are lionfish a plenty. We watch a small red and white banded creature like a lobster and realise there are at least 3 of them on this one small rock. Even as we head back to the exit I see a very small thin pipefish.

This dive is an absolute must do when you are visiting the Coolidge. There is no experience like it.