Last night was rocky; the Searcher swung with the swell all night long. That made us especially eager to jump in the water and dive a hundred feet below the surface, where the swell is barely discernible. We are tired after eighteen full days of diving, and waking up in the morning is increasingly difficult; but there is something that keeps us going. It is the realization that we cannot waste a minute in this unique atoll. Laziness and idleness are alien words here, and we don't have enough hours to dive as much as we would like. The mere thought of meeting the sharks again, or hovering over a coral infinity, triggers our adrenaline.

And so we did; we conducted our last dive on the Western terrace of Kingman Reef. We jumped into our two black Zodiacs, this time joined by Richard and Barbara Littenberg, and went three miles to the north. We descended to the same drop-off we visited yesterday, hoping to witness another reef spectacle. A spectacle we saw, but this time it was not the thousands of fusiliers that amazed us. Twelve curious dolphins swam excitedly around our boats and us during the entire dive. They chirped, whistled, and clicked. I imagine they were expressing their amusement at those clumsy creatures that arose from two black rubber platforms, moved so slowly underwater, and produced so many strange noises and bubbles. The sharks came as well, and circled us all the way to our boats. I could not feel but awkward and inelegant.

The downside of the dive was a large fragment of a net used as a fish aggregation device-an artificial floating object used for fishing tuna-entangled on the reef a hundred feet deep. It was a reminder that even remote places like Kingman are not safe from the human footprint.

Back in the Zodiacs we could still hear the dolphin chat. It started raining, and Richard said, "this is the best dive I have done in a very long time," with a smile so contagious that made me very happy.

We pulled anchor and left our dream coral reef. We headed towards Palmyra Atoll, 35 miles southeast, where we will catch a plane to Honolulu tomorrow. Looking back from the deck of the Searcher, I saw the breakers disappear slowly. I wish places like Kingman will not disappear.

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