I awoke at 7:00 a.m. because of noise from Riccione and routinely went and made coffee for the whole cottage. I drank my cup of coffee and got ready and headed to the commissary and was there with a few marine bio 1 and 2 guys and then we were told we were meeting at the gate to eat at the harbor so we went to the gate and got picked up by Glenn. We got to the harbor and put all our equipment on Sea Monkey and then went to Dive BVI’s shop and ate breakfast. Today I ate a glazed donut, a yogurt, and two pieces of toast with peanut butter. After breakfast we boarded the Sea Monkey and went to Salt Island to dive the shipwreck aka the Rhone. Today we did a 2 tank dive one part at the bow and the other at the stern of the ship. We began our first dive on the deep part of the Rhone and went down to about 80 ft where the bow now lies. We were able to see the crow’s nest, the deck, and the very tip of the bow. While diving the bow of the Rhone we saw a group of 13 squid, a hawksbill turtle, multiple species you see almost anywhere, a lot of different corals worms and fans, a lot of squirrel fish and a serving plate sized angelfish. We saw the huge angle fish when we did a swim through of the hull of the ship. After we had seen all this, swam through the hull, and under the bow we surfaced and got on the boat for about 30 minutes to make sure our nitrogen levels were ok for our dive of the stern. We made our decent and we found the same group of 13 squid and saw fish like the porcupine fish, queen trigger fish, a big jack, saw the hawksbill turtle really closeup. Also on this dive we got to swim through the propellor on the ship and got to rub three times clockwise the lucky port hole that still has glass. This was the porthole to the only passenger that survived excluding crew members. After doing that we swam around and looked at all the machinery and more debris from the ship. There was a silver spoon we were able to see and touch. Then we surfaced and got on the boat and headed to Cooper Island for lunch. When we got there it wasn’t time for us to eat and the docks were full so we tied up to a mooring line and waited. While waiting we saw a pretty large 4 foot wide stingray. When a ship left we were able to get that spot and got off and went to the restaurant were we ate some fish and chips. By far these were some of the best fish and chips I have ever had. It helped that the fish they used was Mahi-Mahi which is by far my favorite fish to this date. After eating a filling and satisfying lunch I was so tired and exhausted. Then, we boarded Sea Monkey and boated to about 1 minute away and snorkeled around this reef and sea turtle grass area. We saw a green sea turtle and a few more stingray. I finally saw the fish that I have always wanted to see/fish; the tarpon. Just as I aspected they were big and lean. They looked as if they would be a fun battle to fish for them. After our snorkel we boarded Sea Monkey and headed back to the harbor. On the way to the harbor the water was choppy so it was a pretty rough ride. I sort of just closed my eyes and relaxed on the upper deck. When we got back to the harbor we unloaded the equipment and shortly left back to Guavaberry. We got a good hour plus to relax before we went to ad Dog’s for dinner where we ate quesadillas , it was delicious and filled me to the point of wanting to sleep immediately, but we had to log our dives and we chilled there for awhile before we came back to the cottage to go to bed around about 10.
Andrew Suarez
