Late to the party so this wall of text will get lost but anyhoo... Back in 2010 I had recently qualified and went with a friend to do some diving off the coast of Oman. All my training was cold water based with a dry suit and this was obviously warm water wetsuit but after a morning dive I was accustomed to the slight change in techniques.
Back to the hotel for some food and a nap and then out that evening for a night dive. My first. So me, my friend, an experienced dive leader from the dive shop and some other guy waded out into the pitch blackness. After a fairly long surface swim we stopped and the dive leader gave us some final instructions. He also mentioned in passing that there had been a Bull Shark spotted feeding in the area earlier so keep an eye out for him. Needless to say I would have aborted the dive if I had known how dangerous Bull Sharks can be but the DL was nonchalant about it so off we go...
The dive was pretty amazing. At one point we came across a sea turtle sleeping on the sea bed. It was huge. Things look bigger underwater but this guy was easily the size of a small car. We kept a respectful distance but our lights woke him and he slowly but gracefully swam off into the blackness.
About 10 minutes later something huge darted across the beam of our lights. Shit. Was that the shark? My sphincter was twitching like a bunny rabbits nose. Phew it was the turtle back to have a look at us. It swam in a big arc around us and was about 4 meters from me. I was at the back of the group, about 10 meters behind my buddy. I was mesmerised by how huge this guy was - his head was about the size of mine. Then without warning he darted at full speed, beak open, straight for me - well straight for where my junk is. I was shocked but managed to react and push the animal under me - actually he was so huge I didn't budge him and it was more like I vaulted him and went head over heels. There was a wall of bubbles. I dropped my flashlight. It was swinging wildly on the lanyard attached to my wrist. Arrrgh excruciating sharp pain in my leg.
I thought for a second he'd bitten me but no it was cramp. So I'm totally disoriented, virtually blind, in agony and to top it all didn't know where the turtle was. I was only recently qualified but my training kicked in. I grabbed my flashlight and checked my computer - ok only at 22 meters and dropping slowly. Good I'd only dropped 5 meters or so. Quickly sorted out my buoyancy and levelled out. Checked my air. Hmmm ok but I'd gulped through a lot and was still breathing heavily and my heart was going like the clappers. Slowed my breathing as best I could. Now to sort out the cramp. This all took probably 90 seconds in total and I did it automatically. I had a good instructor during my training.
Ok more or less sorted. Now where are my buddies? Erm. Hello? Ok this was not good. They were nowhere to be seen. Shit. What now? Do I surface? Do I blindly search for them? I didn't have a compass and even if I did I hadn't done any underwater navigation training at that stage. At this point my training went out and common sense kicked in. I switched off the flashlight and slowly turned 360 to see if I could spot their lights. Nothing. Also nothing can describe just how dark it is underwater at night. There's nothing. Ok another 360 slower this time. All the while I'm half expecting the turtle or shark to make an appearance. Ah ha there - in the distance, above me, I see a faint flash of light. I turn on my light and I head off in that direction slowly. I'm still sore from the cramp and I'm still trying to slow my breathing to conserve air.
Every few meters I turn off my light to recheck my orientation to the distant faint light that I only see glimpses of as the owner sweeps it back and forth looking at their surroundings. I'm slowly ascending to the level I think the light is at and doing all the usual checks. I pass a huge octopus and while I'd love to stop and look at it I'm kinda busy. Plus knowing my luck he'd probably try to eat me. After what seemed an eternity but was probably only 5-6 minutes I catch up with the group and after another few minutes we ascend to do a safety stop and then surface.
On the surface I berate the lot of them for leaving me. They had no idea and thought I was in the group. They had followed the turtle. I'm really pissed but when I relate the incident to them and tell them a turtle tried to bite my junk off, I can only laugh. I can only guess that the turtle was attacking first because it was blinded by the light and couldn't see what was behind it. Understandable. So that was my first night dive. It hasn't put me off night dives but shortly afterwards I learned underwater navigation. I also learned about Bull Sharks via Google. Fuck!
TL:DR; Read it - don't be so goddam lazy. Or don't read it.