I couldn't have said it better; I second that emotion!
-Mark B.

At 11:08 PM 1/5/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>Hi Viv,
>
>Have I told you lately how very much I enjoy and look forward to your dive
>reports?  Maybe it's because I can hear your voice in the telling and
>can't help smile from remembering your infectious laugh.
>
>I hope you will keep posting your reports and don't get discouraged by
>lack of comment.  I know that usually I'm simply too stunned to reply
>after reading how much you wring out of a dive...and out of life for that
>matter.  We look forward to seeing you again in LaPaz.  It's happy new
>year that your around.
>
>Best regards,
>Russ
>
>
>Krazy Kiwi Viv wrote:
>
>>New Years Eve we welcomed in the New Year with a private function for the
>>staff of Bayview Caravan Park & Holiday Village at the back of the Lodge.
>>Chris put on a brilliant fire twirling show and, for his efforts, I don't
>>think there was a hair left on his hands.  He made it look easy but using
>>the same motions as a long poi I know how difficult it can be when you are
>>doing doubles .. up, over and around ensuring you don't set your hair or
>>skirt on fire. I think this was the first New Years ever where the cops did
>>not have to arrest anyone for the night.  I snuck off to bed once all the
>>kissing & hugging was over .. I needed a bit of a catnap before the 7:30am
>>call to rise & shine for our New Years Day dive.
>>
>>On the way down to the beach at 8:15am we came across a few party-goers who
>>were still at it.  We were the only boat out that morning.. and due to that
>>we were able to pick and choose what dive mooring we wanted, which was
>>fortunate as the winds were still a problem.  Knowing the glass bottom
>>boats would not be taking snorkellers out till sometime in the afternoon we
>>decided to dive on a couple of their more regular snorkel sites just to see
>>what was there.
>>
>>Dive #7 was way out near where the open ocean broke over the reef wall.
>>Fish every where zooming around left, right and centre.  As I was feeling
>>lazy I just sat on my knees in the sand watching all the activity for a
>>while - it was like being in the middle of a busy road crossing. This spot
>>had some lovely staghorn formations ... each being nibbled on, the algae
>>that is, by the convict surgeon fish, numerous types of parrotfish and
>>various wrasses of all shapes, sizes and colours.  Slowly finning over to
>>the reef wall itself I was surprised to find the sand had been totally
>>sucked out from this area so there were many small caves and ledges to
>>check out.  Found a family of spotted sweetlips in one cave. Lots of blue-
>>spotted orange stingrays here trying their best to hide headfirst under the
>>ledges.  Many of the damsel fish were grunting and doing their best to
>>attack you if you came anywhere near where they had laid their eggs.
>>A small manta ray came by .. don't know what it was doing on this side of
>>the bay as normally they only cruise up & down the waters between Maud's
>>Landing, Oyster Bridge and the main coral porites dive site further north.
>>
>>Dive #8 was at a spot closer in to shore where the Coral Bay Adventures
>>glassbottom boat frequents on a daily basis.  The fish here (schnapper,
>>spangled emperor, fusiliers, sargent majors and blue-green chromis) had
>>obviously become accustomed to being feed as they were around the boat as
>>soon as we moored. This site was very pretty .. stacks of different types
>>of coral reaching up towards the surface.  Again many large flutemouths
>>(all three colours), schools of various types of surgeonfish were skirting
>>around many of the staghorn coral patches.  Came across a dinner plate
>>sized turtle slowly cruising along popping up now & again for a breath
>>above. Saw three different types of pufferfish.  The larger ones always
>>have that funny comical look on their faces when you corner them for a shot
>>and they don't know which way to go.
>>
>>Today things were back to normal in Coral Bay.  The dive shop was open for
>>business and the various skippers were motoring out in their dingies to
>>prepare their vessels for passengers.  That could be anything from a manta
>>ray/turtle/dolphin snorkel, dive trip inside or outside the reef, fishing
>>charter, out for a sail, a fishing charter or a 4-wheel drive and kayak
>>adventure.
>>
>>Dive #9 we were back at Eel Bommie.  I spent 85mins uw at this site .. one
>>of my favourite spots.  The wobbegongs were still sleeping in the same
>>caves we saw them in during the previous dive here.  Took lots of piccies
>>of a beautiful black & white firefish.  Found a very pretty large cowrie
>>shell lying in the rubble which I was lining up to take a piccie of before
>>I realised the beautiful creature I expected to pop out any moment to show
>>its lovely mantle would not be - as it had already been eaten. On turning
>>it over a spotted a very small hermit crab had taken up residence.  But, as
>>the shell was way, way too large for it, the crab could not move the shell
>>so I scrounged around in the broken shell area for a small shell for it
>>leaving that shell turned over right next to the now turned over cowrie
>>shell in the hope the hermit crab would realise the smaller shell was more
>>suitable for it. I finned off checking out all the new sponges that had
>>started to take over many of the coral bommies here. Very surprised when I
>>chanced across a baby numb ray that was rolling to & fro in the swell -
>>unfortunately dead.  Never knew numb rays existed in this area so that is
>>one thing I will have to check up on with the WA museum folk when I get
>>back. Found quite a few nudibranchs out on the crawl which I photographed
>>to death .. atleast they don't run away giving you a tail-end view.
>>There is one particular anemone that for the life of me I can not figure
>>out why it exists in the middle of the sand and rubble where it has no
>>protection at all.  The anemone itself is still quite small but it is home
>>to two large clarkii and 3 baby clarkii, plus a family of dominoes.  Yet
>>there is a large anemone literally of the same type as that one (adhesive
>>anemone) that is in a very protected area but has nothing on it.  No
>>anemonefish or shrimps.  Go figure!  I have been tempted at times to take a
>>net down and try and catch all those on the swell-swept anemone and move
>>them over to the calmer more protected anemone .. but nature has its own
>>way of dealing with things.  So I continue to marvel at how the clarkii
>>continue to breed, put up with all the wrasse picking and poking at the
>>rocks around them, and cope with the copious amounts of sand that drift
>>across their anemone daily.  I shot my last two shots of slide film on the
>>anemonefish .. had been hunting around for the large baler shell that is
>>resident in this area but it had disappeared somewhere else.  Yep, you
>>guessed it .. while I was finning back to the boat there it was .. the
>>baler shell out in all its glory trumpeting along under the damn boat.
>>Bugger .. no film left.
>>
>>Dive #10 - north of Asho's Gap.  The Ningaloo Reef dive shops boat -
>>Exmouth Dive - was already diving off Asho's Gap so we swung a big arch
>>around them to get to the north end mooring to ensure we did not connect
>>with any of their divers.  Lots of coral heads just under the surface of
>>the water here so a bit of a tricky weave in & out before we were safely
>>moored.  Off we all went in the hope of seeing the sharks again on the
>>cabbage patch coral .. quite a bit of a swim to get over to the main bommie
>>but once were were on that side and had seen the sharks it was easy in the
>>current to cruise back slowly down the western side up & around a few of
>>the bommies on the northern dive site.  The vis was certainly a lot better
>>this time and there were more fish out roaming about. A very large school
>>of sailfin tangs were dancing around us at one point as we drifted along.
>>All the anemonies look healthy with lots of orange anemonefish in
>>residence. Every now & again a large sweetlip or grouper would appear near
>>a coral bommie and once it realised we had sighted it would disappear in to
>>a gap in the coral. There is one turtle in particular that is a regular
>>here .. it is missing one front fin so had a bit of difficulty swimming.
>>When it was still a youngin I recall watching it crash in to some of the
>>tall coral formations that happened to be in its path before it built up
>>enough momentum to get above them.  Now that it has become accustomed to
>>all the divers and snorkellers that frequent the northern end of this dive
>>site it slowly takes its time chomping on sponges and any jellyfish it is
>>lucky to catch instead of bolting for its life. As I did not have the
>>camera with me on this dive I was busy picking up drupella snails .. the
>>vermin of the sea on this side of the pond.  I don't think they have this
>>pest on the Great Barrier Reef ... guess they have their crown of thorns
>>invasion now and again while we have the drupella snail.  I think about
>>400+ of them are now RIP in the local tip.  The CALM ranger came over to
>>chat to us while we were unloading the dingy and I promptly offered my
>>bucket full of drupella snail to him if he wanted them, as technically you
>>are not supposed to remove ANYTHING from the marine sanctuary area (Asho's
>>Gap falls within that zoned area) but being a pest he was quite happy for
>>me collect and destroy them.
>>
>>Tomorrow is my last day of diving and the weather looks like turning
>>nasty ... weatherman is sitting on the fence on whether what is coming down
>>and across the western coastline is going to turn in to a cyclone.   They
>>have put out a warning that it *may* turn in to the cyclone .. nothing
>>definite yet.   Fortunately the bay area we are in is not prone to
>>cyclones - it always seems to wipe out Exmouth at the lowest point .. but
>>the cyclones that hit the Gasgoyne region normally goes inland to less
>>populated areas and trashes a few of the cattlestations in its path on the
>>way before dying out.
>>Viv