Off beaten track

At night the Cargo wreck glows. What looks like slightly boring, if colourful, stubs of coral during the daytime come alive at night. Known as Tubastrea coral, these are non-reef building coral which do not host photosynthetic algae within them like the coral we are most familiar with. These are usually found in deeper waters and in areas where they are exposed to currents. The polyps extend tentacles into the water during the night and feed. The effect is quite startling with entire sections of the wreck appearing to wave to and fro, shimmering in the torchlight as the corals feed. It is an unforgettable experience night diving with these corals.

Bait ball! Towards the end of the season millions of tiny fish congregate on the Cargo Wreck where they are pursued relentlessly by other fish. They all bunch up and move as one in an amazing ballet as they try to avoid being eaten.

At night all the corals come out to feed and it looks like the Cargo is in full bloom. Amazing sight.

An area I'm still a bit unfamiliar with, night diving!

A wreckscape of my favourite wreck, the Cargo Wreck

The resident clown fish on the Cargo Wreck in Colombo. Resident at least until one of the fish collectors gets him.

One of my favourite spectacles underwater are the �bait balls,� conglomerations of small fish grouping together, tightly packed for protection from predators. These are especially common on the Cargo Wreck where thousands of fusiliers (Caesionidae) can be seen often in amorphous fluidity. Not exactly a bait ball, but a shoal of fusiliers heading past. Close up they are quite a beautiful fish They are especially prolific when there�s a bit of a current and some plankton in the water and while fascinating to watch by themselves, the action really starts when a few Bonito show up. These medium size tuna hunt in small packs of five to eight fish and are capable of simply jaw-dropping bursts of speed. There is nothing that can compare to the adrenaline rush you get watching these in action. I�d only seen these fish dead on a block of ice at a supermarket before I started diving so the speed and agility which these fish displayed was mind-blowing (I�m of course rapidly running out of super...

Dive #41 and #42, diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda, Divemaster Jehan, and two American dive buddies whose names I cannot recall (as usual).   Parak Gala: Bottom time � 43 minutes; Depth � 22.1 meters Snap! I stared disconcerted at the severed strap of my dive mask. A number of profanities raced through my head as I realized I had left my spare strap on land, in my backpack. The conditions were extremely rocky with white flecked grey waves all around us and there was no chance of getting back to shore to get my strap. Thankfully there was an extra mask in the boat and despite the bad fit I pulled it on and got into the water. There I was made to wait for what seemed like an interminable time while the waves playfully slapped me in the face and smacked me up against the boat while my erstwhile dive buddies took their own cool time getting ready. Finally all geared and ready, we started to descend. Unfortunately the older of the American couple hadn�t di...

Dive #39 and #40, diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda , Divemaster Jehan, and instructor Shaf.   Cargo Wreck: Bottom time � 44 minutes; Depth � 31 meters This was a dive with a couple of old hands at the game, Shaf and Jehan, and the plan was to spend as much time underwater as possible without going into ridiculous deco times. As we hit the wreck , bait balls boiled out of the blue, Fusiliers exploding past us as they surged silvery in the water. There was more of a current than usual hence the activity of the Fusiliers. On the body of the wreck there were the usual suspects roaming around, a school of Blue-lined Snappers, a phalanx of blue and yellow swimming along. Shaf peeled away from us to go explore the innards of the wreck (please note that wreck exploration and solo diving requires very specialized training and as such should only be done by suitably qualified divers). I finned down to one of the lifeboats lying disconsolately on the bottom, gho...

Dive #34 and #35, diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda, Divemaster Jehan, Dive guide Nishan and buddies Daniel and Buddhi.   Cargo Wreck: Bottom time � 34 minutes; Depth � 30.6 meters Spear-fishermen are a constant bane for divers, primarily those who think that it is sporting to strap tanks onto themselves and spear large, charismatic fish like Groupers and Rays. Most of the big fish are now nowhere to be seen because of the indiscriminate fishing done by such gentlemen who have wiped out such slow reproducing fish. The Cargo Wreck had a claim to fame that it was the home of two spectacularly giant Rays, known rather brilliantly as Elvis and Priscilla. I hadn�t seen them on the wreck yet and in fact no one had seen them that season and it was feared that they had ended up, via a spear-fisherman, at a fish market and on someone�s plate. We started the dive at the bow of the ship and slowly moved to the stern, covering the 200m length while being constan...

Dive #29 and #30 (and #31), diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda, dive buddies Nishan and Anu. Cargo Wreck: Bottom time � 41 minutes; Depth � 29.1 meters Some anomaly of the wreck attracted a second glance from me. As I swam in closer I was slightly taken aback to see a bit of the wreck move quite sinuously. Looking at my dive computer to confirm I was nowhere near 30 meters and as such couldn�t be narced I looked at the writhing piece of the wreck with unabashed interest. I almost whooped into my regulator when I realized that I had been staring at what looked like an elongated seahorse on a diet. Beckoning Nishan over excitedly I pointed out the creature, which he later (once he didn�t have a regulator in his mouth) identified as a species of Pipefish , which for those of you who are scientifically inclined are in the Syngnathidae family, which includes the seahorses. After metaphorically patting myself on the back for making this exciting discovery I occ...

Dive #46 and #47, diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda , Divemaster Jehan, Dive guide Nishan and buddy whose name I cannot remember.   Cargo Wreck: Bottom time � 49 minutes; Depth � 31.3 meters It was a dark and stormy morning as I moseyed down to the Dive center greeted by Nishan, Jehan and our buddy who were sitting solemnly in a row outside the center. My heart quailed a bit when Nishan said the dive for the day was cancelled due to rain. I hadn�t dived for over a week and a half due to a trip out of Colombo to see whales in Mirissa (more on that later) and a hectic schedule had kept me in office. I was starting to hallucinate at my desk with the white wall in front of me suddenly turning into deep blue with a trumpet fish dancing temptingly in front of me. As you can see I needed to dive (though I am wondering with some trepidation as to what the heck will happen when dive season ends). Thankfully Nishan was just having me on�well to a certain extent....

Dive #26 and #27, diving off Mount Lavinia with Colombo Divers , Boatman Ravinda, Divemaster Jehan, buddy Ricardo and Instructor Paris for the second two dives of my Advanced Open Water Course.   Cargo Wreck: Bottom time � 40 minutes; Depth � 31.3 meters This dive combined my Deep, Multilevel and Wreck dives for my Advanced Certification together. The deep blue over the Cargo beckoned as always as we moored over the site after my briefing about narcosis, wrecks and a diveplan drawn up for the Multilevel dive. This was only second visit to the Cargo and I was excited (there�s my understatement for the year). Roll off and down to the wreck, my descent controlled with my new found buoyancy skills. The usual shoal of fusiliers was missing but as the white speckled ship rose up out of the blue the usual explosion of fish life dazzled. My old friend the trumpetfish was in attendance but a bit skittish this time as we drifted along the wreck. This being a Deep dive, we bottomed out and ...

Dive #21 and #22, diving off Colombo with Colombo Divers and divemaster (instructor in training) Jehan Dive Instructor/King Pin Paris and dive buddy Andy from Canada. Cargo Wreck: Bottom time � 48 minutes; Depth � 26.8 meters The sea looked like a giant silver-grey dish as I strolled into the dive center a bit behind schedule. Upul and Ravindra were as usual hard at work loading the boat and I kitted up and loaded my gear as well. The sky was overcast and fisher boats lurked in the light mist looking like ancient Arab dhows as our boat slipped out smoothly through the almost non-existent surf. The contrast between the ocean today and the last few times I�d been out was breathtaking, where the white caps and surges had predominated the last times, today, the boat moved as if it were drifting through silk, grey, smooth, silk peppered rather incongruously with terns perched on any bit of flotsam they can find. Flying fish skittered over the surface while here and there the surface boiled...