Today I was awoken by a pesky alarm, our signal that the day has begun. We followed our normal routine for the mornings, a nice breakfast then a two tank morning dive. Our first stop for today Hepp’s pipeline. This’s dive site got its name from its unique wall which is shaped almost like a pipe. This dive was our deeper of the two requiring us to go down to around 100 feet. This dive was made memorable by a spotted moray eel who we saw tucked into a crevice in the wall of the reef. It was black and white in coloration however so what little we could see of it stood out immensity. Our next site was, Spanish Bay, named for a closed dive resort that sat right next to it. This site was abundant with life, we were able to spot 3 invasive Lionfish. These were all tucked into small crevices almost impossible to find unless you poked you head into their hole. Another sight I was able to capture was was a group of two young drumfish, our dive guide specifically told us to look out for them. They were hard to miss due to their black and white stripes and billowing fins. Lastly after a break we were treated to stingray city, a 12 foot dive that put us in contact with a large group of Atlantic stingrays. I was able to feel a stingray which was an interesting experience as I would never think that I could get so close to wild animal in its natural habitat. Our guides were equipped with 1 pound of squid in order to feed and attract the rays. This worked wonders, the guides were able to lead the rays around a small circle which we enclosed. After this our day was pretty much over, tomorrow we take on the kittiwake wreck and a beach cleanup.
