For these last 2 days on the large Hawaiian land, I rented a car, a Chrysler PT Cruiser. I drive to the west coast where, close to the airport, during the air waltz of the jumbo jets, a handful of boats agglutinate in a little bay where they thrived a peculiar activity, the manta rays night dive. It's precisely where I will be tonight. On the way, I make a detour by the black sand beach the turtles lay down on. They are only 3 today, but my joy to approach them is as great as yesterday. I can't linger because the road is still long up to Kailua. 1H30 later, I arrive at the diving center where I comply with the formalities. The price is exorbitant, it adds up to 170$ for 2 dives. I get to the boat at 3PM where the staff welcome the divers of the day. As we navigate to the bay, a dolphins' family offers us a aerobatics show. A savoury starter preceding our immersion.
After the briefing, we go into the water for the first dive. A tasteless immersion, far from the marvels of the Indian Ocean. However, the interest focuses on the second dive. The dusk motivates us to put on our equipment again and equipped with a torchlight, we jump into the water. A several-torch-kitted box was established at 10m deep underwater and light the surface. Different series of divers come and kneel down around this luminous seamark and put their lamps upwards. This cluster of light attracts swarms of plankton which manta rays are very fond of. After a 20-minute vain waiting, the dive master decides to move on to the spare plan with a normal night dive when one of the divers shakes his torchlight and all our eyes turn back. The sea devil flies to the light shaft. Our breathing cuts themselves off, the time of this mind-blowing dance. The creature will make two other rides before vanishing into the dark blue. We will wait for its or one of its fellow member's come back but in vain. We get on the boat, glad of this brief appearance when another ray comes by the hull. Each one of us is delighted with this double encounter while we go back to the pier in a starry sky.
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