Having finally got to grips with the Go Pro, the previous day, I was quite excited to try it out on a different reef, which meant another lovely boat trip with Ahmed, Ibrahim and Adam. This reef, Adam assured me, had lot's sharks, so I would almost certainly get some good photo/video opportunities. If you've read my other posts, you may be as surprised as I am, that the desire to see and take a photo of a shark is now bordering on the obsessive.
Having checked, double checked and checked again, that I had everything, we set off to the harbour.
On the way Adam asked me if I minded if 2 other people joined us. I was a bit torn to be honest. I didn't want to be a meanie, selfish spoilsport, but I quite liked having the boat to myself. For one thing, it meant I could smoke without worrying about offending other people.
Anyway, the nicer half of me won and I said of course I didn't mind. By the end of the day, I was incredibly relieved I said it was ok, as will become very clear as my story unfolds!
The other couple were a very friendly girl from Singapore and a guy from the Maldives carrying the longest pair of fins ever. Ahh a free diver I thought to myself. Also with them was the tour guide from their guest house. So that made 7 of us in total.
Anyway, it turned out that on our way to the "Shark infested reef" (just kidding) we were stopping off at Manta point, so the other couple could have a look at these giant beauties. Ahmed assured me that he would add time to the trip, so that my snorkelling wouldn't be cut short, which stopped me feeling grumpy and a little bit put out.
At Manta point we all got into the water and it was immediately obvious we had a problem. The current was so strong, it was physically impossible to stay over the Mantas. Even the local lads were having trouble, but clearly this was not a new occurrence, because the boys had a solution. Ibrahim produced a long rope, tied one end to the boat and threw the rest of it out into the water. We were all instructed to grab the rope and hold on tight as Ahmed, started the engine and moved forward to counteract the current. The theory was that this would keep us over the Mantas, but it felt as if we were being dragged through the water really fast and it was surprisingly tiring. To be honest, I wasn't enjoying it all and I was just relieved that on my first Manta trip, we'd had virtually no current.
Please note that at this stage there has been no mention of the bloody Go Pro. I had taken it into the water with me, but as soon as I realised what we were up against, I hadn't even bothered to turn it on.
I signalled that I wanted to get out and the boys helped me aboard, where I was able to relax and watch the shenanigans going on in the water.
The free diver went down a few times, but by the time he came up, he was way behind us, so Ahmed had to slow a bit. Adam also let go at one point and within seconds was a tiny dot in the distance. Even swimming at full pelt wasn't enough for him to catch us, so once again Ahmed slowed the boat.
I felt really sorry for the friendly lady, because her rather frenetic experience had been nothing like my lovely slow leisurely Manta viewing, a week earlier.
They didn't stay in the water for long and once back on board, Ahmed announced we were going to see a sunken boat.
There was no problem working out when we had arrived, as there were 2 dirty great masts sticking out of the water at a 45 degree angle. We all got our masks and fins on again - 5 sets of fins in the middle of a small boat always leads to everyone treading on each other, so there was a lot of apologising going on, but we all made it into the water without serious injury.
As I swum towards the boat, (the sunken one!) I switched the camera on and got a nice little message telling me "no card". The little micro card was sitting in it's converter in the side of my lap top back at HVR.  I was right royally pissed off and absolutely furious with myself. I called myself some very unflattering, very rude names and swum back to hand the camera back to Ibrahim. (Well actually it was more of a throw - but luckily, he's a good catch).
He said he had a spare card and I was delighted. The boys on the boat save the day!!
Sadly it was not to be. While they were fiddling with the camera, I went to have a look at the sunken boat. It looked like an old yacht of some sort, but the visibility wasn't great and there wasn't much fishy activity going on around it, so after a couple of minutes, I went back to get the camera.
To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of wrecks. I find them just a little bit creepy, but decided I would take a couple of shots just for the record.
I pressed the button, the camera responded with a funny beeping noise. Oh for goodness sake - what now. The screen at the back was happy to tell me - "card error!!!!"
Well I didn't want a picture of the sunken boat anyway - but I did want a picture of a shark and that was going to be impossible with a malfunctioning card scenario.
I swam back to our boat - again (at this rate I was going to be worn out before we even got to the reef) and handed the camera back to Ibrahim - again!
I had a little paddle around but my heart wasn't in it. I didn't want to look at the wreck any more and I kept metaphorically beating myself about the head for being so (excuse the language) fucking stupid!!!
I think Ahmed realised I'd had enough of the boat wreck viewing - me, floating around on my back looking up at the sky may have given him a clue. So he called us all back and it was off to the reef.
Back on board, Ibrahim handed my the Go Pro again and smiled. "Is it working now" I asked tentatively, he nodded and I was ecstatic.
As soon as we arrived, we all piled back into the water and one quick look around told me that this was one enormous reef and the conditions were ideal. The top of the reef was relatively flat, there was enough water between the reef top and the surface for a big fish to swim through and the visibility was great.
Almost straight away I saw one, swimming across the reef in front of me.  Sharks don't hang around to pose for photos so I was ready to shoot some amazing video (to astound all my friends and family with my bravery, when I got home). I pressed the button (holding my breath with toes crossed - fingers were busy with the camera) and it started recording. Oh thank you thank you thank you.
From a photography point of view, it was quite an impressive haul. I saw and videoed 2 more sharks and then came across an enormous Black Ray resting on the sand behind a rock, really really close to the surface.Â
I was beside myself with happiness.
I took loads of photos, from all angles, some video and then some more photos, before I very charitably called everyone else over to have a look. These were definitely going to be some of the best photos I had taken on the whole holiday.
I was a bit gutted when the session was over, but we had been out on the trip for over 3 hours now, so it was definitely time to head back.
Frankly, I couldn't wait to get the card into my laptop and see the results of my efforts.
Back at HVR I whipped the card out of the camera, put it into it's little converter thing and pushed it into the card reader on my laptop.
I have the Mac configured to open the Photos App as soon as it reads any kind of card and it immediately told me that there were 900 new photos. Well I was pretty sure I hadn't taken that many. I can get a bit over zealous when a photo opp presents itself, but I didn't think it would be physically possible to take 900 photos in that short space of time.
As the photos started to appear, I realised that the card they had lent me had been used for many other similar trips, so there were loads of pictures of happy people all laughing and enjoying themselves. They clearly hadn't drowned one camera and left the SD card for the other stuck in their computer.
I don't know how this stuff works on other laptops (I haven't used windows for years), but the mac gives you the option to download all or select the ones you want, which meant I needed to wait until all 900 had appeared before selecting mine.
It seemed to be taking a little longer than usual, so I went to make myself a coffee and have a quick fag outside.
When I got back, I stared at the screen in confusion and a growing feeling of dread, because where my lovely shark and ray pictures should be, were big empty squares. Don't panic Maz - you are good at this stuff - it's obviously something simple - just find a work around!!!
Has it actually finished reading the card? - sadly, yes.
Open the Go Pro app and see if that can read the card and show my pictures - sadly no.
Forget the apps and look at the card in finder (equivalent of windows explorer) to see what's on it.
Aha all the photos are listed - good, good, good
Find one of mine (by date and time) and open it. - hold breath and wait for it........
"This file cannot be opened because it is corrupted" - Shit, shit, bugger, bugger, fuck!
Try another one - no
And another one - no
Open the info data on the files - it's confirmed, they are all mush.
I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I was - I could have cried.Â
For me, travelling alone has many advantages and I love it The only drawback, is that you have no-one to share things with, either at the time or later when you are reminiscing.  The photographic record of your experiences, helps to fill that gap - well it does for me, which is why I was so devastated.
By the time I'd faffed around trying to make the card work and blogged a bit (to take my mind of the 2nd camera disaster of the week) it was getting late in the day. I was also fed up to the back teeth of cameras and as I am pretty much incapable of going snorkelling, without one surgically attached to my body, I decided to give the whole thing a miss for the rest of the day.
I did wander down to the beach to watch the sunset (without a camera) and bumped into the girl who was on the boat with me that morning. We got chatting and told her my tale of woe.
"Well I have photos and video of the big Black Ray and I can send them to you if you like" she offered. I could have kissed her face off!! We exchanged e mail addresses ( thank heavens for phones - paper and pens are in short supply at the beach) and I just had to ask.....
"I don't suppose you got any pictures of the sharks did you?". "I don't think so", she replied. " I was going very slowly and I didn't see any, but maybe my partner did, I'll have a look at them when I get back home and send you what I have".
So, as yet, still no pictures of sharks but because the nice half of me agreed to let the others join the trip that morning, there is a vague possibility I may have some soon.
But...... it's only day 10, so there is still time!!!!