Today I slept in as long as I could because I was so exhausted. I hit my snooze button on my iPad at least 3 times. When I finally got up, I packed my bag and headed to the entrance where everyone else was waiting for the taxi. We got a ride and went to the marina for breakfast. After eating, we got the boats ready and set out around 9:45. Casey was the captain of Sea Dragon today and a couple of the students got to drive the boat. The boat ride was about 35 minutes and the weather was awesome. We got to Salt Island around 10:15 and there was no one there which, according to the dive instructors, happens almost never. We got our boats hooked up and then got into the water after Casey and Caitlin briefed us on where we would go on the boat wreck. The water was super nice today with visibility around 70 feet. The only issue with the dive was that the wrecks position is right next to the edge of the Caribbean Sea and the water was a little choppy. The dive instructors said that it is usually extremely choppy and today it was really nice compared to the usual. When we got to the bottom, Caitlin told us to stay low so the current wouldn’t be so hard to go through. Early in the dive we saw a very cool spotted moray eel. I was really happy because I hadn’t seen one until then and it was one of my “must see” things while here. I also saw many things that were not on your average reef. When we finally got down to the wreck site, I was blown away with all of the vibrant color the wreck had with the amount of coral and life there was. The structure was so cool and there were bits and pieces on the sea floor scattered wherever you went. When we got to the first swim through, Caitlin led our group. It was easily my favorite dive because of this swim through. When I took pictures and videos on my goPro, you can’t see any of the vast colors on the walls and floor of the ship. The color is amazing and it was the coolest thing I have ever experienced. We saw a very large lobster on the bottom and my first lionfish. Even though lionfish are awful and the worst thing for a reef, they are easily my favorite fish because they are the coolest looking hands down. We saw a massive snapper and so many reef fish. The swim through was not long at all but it was so cool. The dive was roughly around 30 minutes and after we took a hour surface interval. While resting, Casey gave us an awesome background of the RMS Rhone. The boat sank in 1867 and held 310 passengers. They all died expect for one who’s porthole can be seen underwater. After the surface interval, we dove back down and visited the bow of the ship. We did another swim through and saw another lionfish which Michael White, a student, shot with a spear gun. It was very cool to experience in person and I’m glad we got rid of it. We also got to visit the porthole which sheltered the only passenger who survived. It was marked with a “26” and we rubbed it 3 times. One time for wealth, the second for the best food while here, and the third for our wife to be the prettiest of pretty ladies. When we finished with the dive, we quickly got ready and headed to Cooper Island which was very close. We ate at a very cool restaurant that was right on the beach and had fish and chips. When I was in Ireland, we ate fish and chips every day and it was disgusting. This fish and chips here though was delicious and a great meal after a long morning. After I ate, a couple of my friends and I reapplied sun screen and sat on the shoreline. It was super nice and I had a great time. After, we got back on the boats and went about a quarter of a mile to the corner of the island to snorkel the sea grass. Sea grass is a very important element in many organism’s diets. The sea grass was very interesting to snorkel. It was nothing like a reef. It was flat and very settle. There were very few things but they were awesome of course. Sea grass is a vital food source for many sea turtles and many of the students saw some of them. I saw 3 barracuda’s and one of them was very very large. I am so fascinated by them. They are very misunderstood animals. Yes they are very scary looking because they always have there mouth open and have very large sharp teeth, but they are almost harmless and very interesting. I was the last one on the boat when we finished the snorkel. We had an hour and a half to snorkel but most students just went for 20-30 minutes. We got back to the marina around 3:15 and put all the equipment away. After, we went to the dive shop for our last time. After buying some stuff, we got a taxi ride back to the casa’s where we showed and had a nice break. At 6:15 we met up at the entrance and walked down to Mad Dog’s for the last time. We had delicious quesadillas and nachos. We filled in our dive logs and said goodbye to Inga who was closing her restaurant and going to travel. She has been with Jesuit since we started going down there 3 years ago and has always been there to service us. She is a super nice lady and we were the last Jesuit group she had. We went from the restaurant to the Internet lounge and blogged and then went to bed ASAP. SO TIRED
