Waking up this morning to the sound of a rooster, rather than my 6:30 alarm, I can say was an unusual, and hopefully temporary, part of my morning routine. After the “wake up call,” I headed down to the table for a early morning meal consisting of bacon, eggs, and hash browns in order to nourish my body for an exciting and tiring day of diving. We had our daily meeting, discussing some guidelines, expectations, and other general information for our two dives, and set off on the “Twin Sister” for a new adventure.
On the first dive of the day and the trip, we got set up in our gear, jumped in the water, and descended into the color filled Cayman waters. From the instant I began my descent, I could see plentiful amount of coral, from SPS to Gorgonian corals and countless amount of other types. Gorgonian coral was the most common type of coral I saw. Almost bush-looking, this type of coral has many flimsy branches. Also, I caught some sights of new species of fish such as many squirrel fish, having a red and spiked Finn appearance with large, bulging eyes, often swimming in schools, the Queen, having a blue body and yellow fins, the Gray, appearing grey with numerous small black spots around its body, and the French Angel fish, having almost a glowing appearance as it has a black body with small yellow scales, and the Southern Atlantic Stingray swimming along the sand, which is a common feature of this animal, using its wings to find food after stirring up the sand. Also I was able to see trumpet fish, a skinny and long fish, and adult blue tang, distinguishable by its bright blue coloration. After 31 minutes of diving and a maximum depth of 38 feet, we resurfaced, jumped aboard, and headed to our next location.
At the next dive sight, we hung out on the boat for about 10 minutes, eating snacks, hanging out, laughing and talking, and jumping, diving, and flipping off the boat. Once again, we put our gear on, jump in a began our descent. Accompanied by Henry, we set of on our way towards the activity, swimming past more coral and colors along with more new types of fish. I saw Redband and plenty of Stoplight Parrotfish, easily identifiable by their long bodies, small mouths, and vivid colors, and also numerous amounts of Sergeant Major, which are silver with yellow highlight on top of its body and black or navy stripes down its side. These were my favorite of all the fish I saw. Once again, I saw more Foureye and Banded Butterfly fish, Blue-headed wrasse, Princess Parrotfish, and Grunts.
Once we had reached shore and headed back up to the resort, we ate lunch and I decided I hadn’t had enough of the water yet. Dan and I, headed on a snorkeling excursion. We were able to see a school of grunt, a lobster, a flounder, sergeant majors, and take cool shots using my GoPro. I couldn’t have asked for a better first dive day in the Cayman Islands.
