Location: Underway to Bali
To start off the beginning of October, we had an early wake up of 630am. The group began breakfast, which was followed by clean-up. Once all was finished, we shuttled to Gili Air to the dive shop of Manta Dive. The plan for the day was to complete two dives. One morning dive followed by lunch on Gili Air and then a second dive in the afternoon. After everyone arrived at the dive shop, we proceeded to set up all our gear. This included BCDs, regulators, weight belts, fins, masks and snorkel, and wet suits. The process of all this took a little longer than expected but made sense considering we had 28 people that needed to gear up. Finally, all geared up, we broke into small groups to get briefed but our guides for the day. Briefings consisted of explaining where we would be diving, safety instructions, what to expect on the boat, different hand signals, fish we may in counter (sharks), and some other important things. Once finished with briefings, the group got the gear they needed and hopped on the boat.
We cruised over to one of the other islands next to Gili air which took about 25 minutes, broke into dive groups, and started a 45-minute dive at a max depth of 18 meters/60 feet. This dive was quite mellow. Unfortunately, nobody saw any sharks. However, we sighted sea turtles, trumpet fish, and many more. Everyone enjoyed this dive. Lunch began with everyone dispersing all over the island to find whatever food they desired. We roughly had an hour and a half to eat. Some options are traditional Indonesian food, healthy vegan food, and even some American food. Overall, Gili has some amazing food options. The second dive was much more relaxed, with only a 5-minute boat ride. We were diving on a different reef, Hans reefs, and anticipated many fish, sea turtles, and maybe some white tips if we were lucky. This dive lasted about 30 minutes and was the best dive of the two as it provided a different scene and many more fish. Everyone was very tired after this dive. Everyone headed back to Argo once we de-rigged our kits. We took showers and began passage prep for a small voyage to Bali. Once finished with prep, we had a very tasty meal, cleaned up, and set sail.