Bidding farewell to the coral reef down at 30 meters we pushed outward into the blue waters. Like astronauts leaving the safety of a space station and floating away into the vastness of space, parting from the reef caused a surge of panic and heightened our senses. Panic that we were vulnerable from all sides, accompanied by an elevated state fueled by a sudden adrenaline influx. At the heart of Coral Triangle, in the remote waters of Banda Sea dotted with underwater volcanic mounts, we were poised to come face to face with schools of hammerhead sharks. Our journey began hundreds of nautical miles away at Ambon, serving as the port for most voyages heading for Banda islands. Centuries ago, being the only source of prized spices such as nutmeg and mace had earned them the moniker of Spice Islands. With spice cultivation spreading to other equatorial lands, Spice islands were reduced to a historical footnote, their fame revived centuries later thanks to the fabled marine life inhabiting its remote waters. Unanimously feared, regularly villainized and indiscriminately culled in large numbers thanks to an unreasonable fascination for their fin-soup, sharks connect us to a primeval world that existed since the time dinosaurs ruled the planet. To share space with such mythical marine predators, especially hammerhead sharks has been a deep seated desire for many scuba divers. After journeying for days, stopping to dive at several other remote pinnacles, we anchored close to Pulau Rhun, a small uninhabited island shrouded by dense green canopies. Being rather unlucky with no hammerhead sightings in the past few days, getting enchanted by the rest of unbelievable marine life thriving in these waters was our consolation. A riot of colors hypnotized us in every single dive, whether it was the tightly packed shoals of sardines, reef fishes of every imaginable shape and pattern such as trumpetfish and parrotfish, squadrons of trevallies on hunt; all happening atop a stunningly pristine, healthy and growing coral reef system. We planned to plunge in as early in the morning as possible, since hammerhead sharks are known to swim down or away into the blue sensing any alien disturbances. We were down in the waters at 5:45 AM and descended down as soon as the sun peeped over the horizon. Claire, our dive guide had briefed the group of us four divers; Pavan, Shruti, JP and myself. After reaching the coral cropping at 30 meters as premeditated, she pointed a directed outwards into the blue waters and we started swimming furtively. While we couldn’t see them, apex predators like sharks hear us from far away. Hammerhead sharks ace it up with their 360 degrees view and electro-receptors on their hammer shaped Cephalofoil detecting electromagnetic changes at close distances. But a group of scuba divers makes way more noise. Even before our descent, the fin kicking movement broadcasts our location. Then comes the air bubbles blaring our presence to every small reef fish. Monitoring our depths on individual dive computers we swam in a closed formation. Claire was straight up in the front, with Pavan and Shruti following as buddies, then myself and JP bringing up the rear. After having swum for a couple of minutes which seemed way longer, I turned my head right to look at JP, only to be startled to see a hammerhead shark in his place. I look behind myself to find JP pointing at another hammerhead shark following us at a distance. I swam faster attempting to pull Pavan’s fin to signal him about the sharks, only to find him turn back and signal me to look downwards and behold there they were, a school of 8–10 mid sized hammerhead sharks swimming gracefully beneath us. It was happening all at once. Another lone hammerhead shark darted close to us and bounced back into the blue, disappearing as fast as it had appeared. We ended the dive quite early thanks to rapid air depletion due to excitement and made our way to the surface punctuated only by the mandatory safety stop. All along, our eyes were fixated into the depths of the seas, hoping that the depths would stare back at us one last time.