Our second of four specialist dives, this was our night dive. At dusk we strapped glow-sticks to our tanks, attached torches to our wrists, and decended as a group into the tropical waters.

Diving at night is very different to diving during the day. Except for where you shine your torch, and any luminescant equipment that you may have, everything is completely dark. I can understand why the textbooks warn that some people experience vertigo or disorientation. Diving at night can be like floating in a void; in our case a void with half-a-dozen Dutch tourists who have just received their scuba certifications.

I'm a stickler for safety, and sometimes it feels like I spend as much time watching my guages and buddy as I do admiring the sights around me. As this was only my sixth open water dive, and it being night, my safety-focused behaviour was doubled. Check buddy, check guages, look around. Rinse, repeat.

Swimming in a group of around ten divers meant that it was easy to get in the way of each other, especially with most of us being new to the activity. Being dark also meant that it was difficult to tell who was who, except for our instructors who had different-coloured glowsticks, and the most incredibly large bright-yellow fins. The net result is that for a while underwater I was being a good buddy to one of our Dutch friends, mistakenly thinking they were Jacinta. I was quite surprised when Jacinta arrived on my other side and waved hello.

Apparently the colours and scenery underwater at night were fantastic, but since I spent most of my time checking guages and buddies I don't recall much of what we saw. This may also be due to this dive becoming pale in comparison to our dive the next day.

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