We had a usual start to the day with breakfast at 7 and then gathering gear for another 2 tank dive. We had the same divemasters, Lee and Lucy, and went straight to our first dive sight at Bonnie’s Arch. Our briefing included the usual descriptions of the layout, a max feet cap of 70 feet, and a dive time of 60 minutes max. Lee explained the reasoning behind the name of the reef Bonnie’s Arch. Bonnie was a videographer who filmed all throughout the caymans before any good technology had been developed for underwater videos. Her favorite dive sight in the Caymans was an arch at the reef so after she had passed away the reef was named for her as Bonnie’s Arch. Gear on, we all hopped into the water and began our descent. The visibility wasn’t as clear as yesterday but was still around 40 feet. My dive buddy, Jack Blase, and I began exploring before Lucy had reached the bottom, and we found the arch immediately. The arch was as if a giant hole had been cut into the ground and curved rock out until it went into open water. It was much more beautiful in person than through a description. Coral and fish lined the arch and there was very little dead coral. I was continuing my exploration when one fish stood out to me that I did not know the name of. After doing some research I discovered the fish was called a Black Durgon. I thought it was a very beautiful fish because of it’s deep dark black coloring which seemed to shimmer. It had a fin on the top and a fin on the bottom that waved with the ocean as it swam. After coming across this fish, I saw spines sticking out of a small cave along the reef wall. I swam closer and identified the fish as a lion fish. It’s red and white coloring made it obvious but it’s deadly spines are extremely recognizable. I stayed underwater for around 50 minutes and decided to surface. We did the usual sun bathing on the way to our next dive sight in the opposite direction we came. After arriving Lee dove in and decided the sight was not pretty enough because of the visibility and water coloring. We quickly moved onto the next sight which was almost right in front of the resort. I wasn’t able to see much marine life this dive and surfaced after only 30 minutes. This dive was cool because of the way the reefs seemed to have “canyons” cut through them that I got to explore. I spent most of my time scanning these canyons looking in crevices but found nothing exceptional. This ended our 2 tank dives for the day but we had more fun to come as we went to the resort to prepare for the turtle center. After a nice and plentiful lunch we hopped onto the shuttle and arrived at the turtle center. We swam in the lagoon with green turtles, held green turtles, and observed loggerhead and kemp turtles. The turtles are all clearly identifiable by their shells and coloring which we learned in our meeting. I got a pretty cool photo with a green turtle that seemed to like me and I bought gifts for friends in the gift shop. We headed back to the resort and had some downtime until our dinner and night snorkel. The night snorkel came very quickly since time seemed to fly and next thing I knew we were gearing up with flashlights ready to jump off the dock and explore. It is kind of creepy looking into the pitch black water especially when you and your snorkel buddies flashlight dies. However, we did see the shimmering silver scales of a Tarpon which was the only thing I was able to see. The Tarpon was about 3 to 4 feet long and very cool to look at since the flashlights made its scales glimmer. This snorkel ended our night and tomorrow we have 2 tank dives and Stingray City!
