Per usual we ate breakfast, and then set sail for the Kittiwake shipwreck. The USS Kittiwake was a Naval submarine rescue vessel that was commissioned in 1946 and was decommissioned in 1994. It was the ship that recovered the Challenger Space Shuttle’s black box. It was sunk off the coast of West Bay in 2011 where it serves as a dive site and artificial reef now. It was so amazing to not only swim through the dive site, but just think about all the men and woman who served on that ship in the almost 50 years of commission and all of the history behind the ship was truly amazing.
Our Next dive was at the Doc Poulson which was another sunken ship. It was named after Doctor Poulson who would give dive masters free physicals to make sure they could dive properly. He also brought the first decompression chamber to the island. This dive site had a lot more life than the Kittiwake because it has been around for much longer. I saw lots of colorful coral as well as many Sargent Majors, and I also saw a large barracuda on the ascent. Other than that there was not much out of the ordinary on today dives, life-wise. Being able to dive around the boats was a truly amazing experience.
In the afternoon we did a beach clean up a few miles away from the resort. We got lots of trash, which included some pretty random stuff such as: a mini chair, plastic bottles of bleach and detergent, and many, many empty cans and boxes of beer. It was eye opening on how much litter actually is on this gorgeous island. The rest of the afternoon consisted of swimming in the pool as well as flying a drone off the pier and getting some amazing pictures.
I am sad to say that we only have one more day left on the island, and I hope that tomorrow is the most special day yet.
