I was a very bad husband and missed our anniversary and all I could do was come up with this message.

Lankayan sits in the southeast corner of the Sulu Sea. The waters just off the beach are probably in the upper 80’s.  Even at 65 feet below the surface the water is still 84 degrees. Visibility was sometimes poor at the surface, but often cleared up around 50 feet.

A sleeping white tipped reef shark and a blue spotted stingray. All the shark sightings were fun. We saw nurse sharks, black tipped reef sharks, white tipped reef sharks and leopard sharks.

Dives were always within 10 minutes of the island via a quick speedboat ride. The resort offered three boat dives each day and unlimited shore dives. Although it was tempting to make dives around the house reef, I was almost always too tired to make the additional dives with one exception. We made one sunset/night dive that was highlighted by the sighting of a seahorse. Night dives are fun because you often go down at dusk and then surface under a starlit sky. The brightness of the stars always seem exaggerated because your eyes have adjusted to the darkness of the water.

Some type of sea worm?

The poisonous lion fish

The star of the night dive, a lone seahorse. The story behind this seahorse is that I’ve always wanted to see one and I told everyone on the dive that if they could show me a seahorse I’d buy ice cream for everyone in the group. It was worth it.

Getting ready for another dive

Another type of seaworm?

Ghost pipefish

McGill having another good dive

One of hundreds of types of coral

A couple of clownfish hanging out at home

Bill surfacing after a night dive. It’s pretty dark out there.

I should say that I’m terrible at identifying sea life so if you notice any incorrect identification please let me know.