Day 4 started very similar to Day 3: up at 7 and on the boat by 7:30 after driving to the alternate dock. We began our journey by traveling to a reef called the Big Dipper, which was right off the 7 mile beach. Excited for our first dive of the day, me and my dive buddies hopped into the water.
The Big Dipper is a reef made of coral fingers, very similar to the Big Tunnels from yesterday. The bottom of the canals reach around 100 feet while the tops sit around 80 feet. Upon descending I immediately noticed a Pufferfish. While the medium fish was deflated, it swam away from me and seemed very timid. It immediately hid in a nook and I left it to see other fish. While I was exploring the sandy bottom of the canals I saw tens of Garden Eels; little worms that come up from the ground through little holes. They collect the nutrients as the current pushes it to them. As we swam I’ve them however, they hid from us and went back into the sand. This dive continued for around a total of 28 minutes and was the deepest dive so far. Right after exiting the water we began the drive to the next site about 20 minutes away.
The second dive in the morning today was at a reef called the Chain Reef. The reef gets this name due to a large anchor falling into the coral. The coral and ocean has since covered up the majority of the chain, but it’s still visible in most places and now provides an added structure to the reef. The reef is largely sandy with coral patches dotted around. Upon entering the 45 foot dive site, we descended onto the largest coral head. On this dive I saw many schools of fish, and the most noticeable to me was the Black Durgen. The Black Durgen is a medium sized fish that has a bright blue line at the base of its two tail fins. The two sole fins cause it to swim in a weird manner not like any other fish I’ve seen. Similar to the first dive I saw a few Pufferfish and the Garden Eels. I noticed very similar behavior on both dives. About halfway through the dive we found a sunchair. We decided to take some pictures and relax a bit before rising to the surface after 39 minutes. We then rode back to the resort for lunch.
In the afternoon after a filling lunch, we drove to the Cayman Turtle Center. The Turtle Center is almost a zoo for turtles, birds, a crocodile and other marine life. During this trip we got to pick up some turtles and a bird even landed on my head. We were only there for around an hour and a half after looking at all the animals. It was crazy to see so many turtles in one place of all different sizes. We then returned to the resort and had dinner.
Shortly after a wonderful dinner, we got into the water for a night snorkel. The night snorkel was off the dock of the resort and we saw some new marine life that is only really visible at night. Right when I got in the water I shook my hand and was able to see bioluminescence. The small, brightly colored particles were amazing to see and set the tone for the rest of the snorkel. Next, I encountered two squid. These two brown, translucent and partially transparent creatures were quite small. They stayed still and didn’t move nearly at all. We left them and started working our way back to the dock. The biggest surprise however was a White Spotted Lobster. The Lobster was hiding under a large piece of coral and was incredible to look at. It seemed to float along the bottom and was huge. We then got out of the water and finished the night with a game of water volleyball. Overall today was a very wonderful day and was full of many new and unforgettable experiences.
