Day 481 Merry Christmas Eve- with the WHALE SHARKS!!!!!

I came.

I saw. 

I conquered.

and I crossed one off the bucket list.

Happiest girl in China (or the Maldives) such as it was!!!

Christmas Eve dawned early...we had a nearly three hour boat
ride out to the atoll where we hoped to see some whale sharks.
There were the newlyweds from Sri Lanka, a German couple,
a Russian couple who took more selfies than I have ever seen,
two Japanese girls who were delightful, and Len and I.

...and one of the dive masters we affectionately
called "Jack Sparrow."  The two dive masters
were free divers with these HUGE blades.
They were all legs and lungs in the water!

After a nearly three hour boat ride down to the Ari and Baa
atolls area (where whale sharks are found from December
to May about 50% of the time) we spent an hour and a
half with the boat captain driving a grid pattern and
talking with other boat captains in the area who
were also in on the search.  It was not looking good.

Everybody was taking turns trying to help
spot a big dark shadow in the water...

Other dive boats started converging on the area, and just when
it seemed like the captain was about to give up and call it a
 day, (they were skunked the last two times they went out)...

Jack Sparrow got animated, yelled at the boat captain,
he throttled down, and everybody started scrambling
to get in their gear as he yelled, "JUMP IN! JUMP IN NOW!!!"

Suddenly, there it was!  MY FIRST EVER WHALE SHARK!!!!

While they can get up to 12 meters in length, this one was only
about 6 meters.  Still a 20' fish is HUGE! 

They are so beautiful....a dark blue/grey with what looks like
neon polka dots!  They swim gracefully along, minding their own business.

That's ME!!!!!

Look how little I look next to him!

Naturally, I 'baby talked' him through my snorkel, until he dove deep, deep down.

In all, we saw five whale sharks altogether that day. Funny story about this photo is I was
furiously swimming trying to keep up with the crowd and the dive master who were
following a whale shark.  I turned around to see if Len was behind me, and I damn near
kicked the snout of another whale shark RIGHT BEHIND ME!!!  That's me you
see there, nearly curled up in a ball, trying to put some distance between me and the fella :)

Other people were ridiculously diving down and trying to repeatedly touch the whale
sharks, even though we were told to back off.  I didn't, but some people are just plain stupid
in the water.  On the fifth and last sighting, a crowd of people got way too close,
and the whale shark surfaced and began to thrash about and slap his tail in an effort to get
away.  At that point, I had my fill- I felt sorry for the whale shark. I swam back to the boat.

The dive master took some great photos.  It was a good thing
he did, as Len got me a new GoPro for Christmas, and I
sadly forgot to pack it.  It was still in Beijing.  Geesh....  :(

There is nothing to fear about a whale shark.  They are neither
a whale, nor a shark.  They are just a huge fish, and a plankton eater.
I love this photo- SAY CHEESE!!!!

It was so much fun; each time we came back to the
boat, everyone was excited and animated telling
stories about what we all saw.  We were truly
like excited little kids at Christmas!

 What a most awesome experience; I will NEVER forget!

G'nite, y'all!