Day 3 Recap
Our day started as usual. We woke up, grabbed our stuff, and were on the taxi by 8:00. For breakfast I tried the hot oats with fruit. The fruit on this island is absolutely amazing! The oats were pretty good, but were second to the bacon and cheese omelette. After breakfast we had a briefing on sea turtles from Dr. Shannon Gore for Marine 1, who went turtle tagging that day. Marine II’s plan was to go across the island and try and see some sharks over in a mangrove-y area. And so we ventured off on our taxi across the island to set off to find sharks. Once we for there we hopped in the water and walked over to the shark-y area (we were supposed to see nursing lemon sharks). We spent the morning checking out that area and then we went back to the Marina to grab lunch at our local restaurant. I had a cheeseburger with fries and it was good. After lunch we went over and did the tour of the Baths again. The Baths were cool and then we snorkeled over to the beach at Guavaberry. When we got there we snorkeled over to a cave we found last year. After that, we just hung out at the beach and had a beach cookout for dinner (burgers and hotdogs). To finish the day we ended with a night snorkel, where I saw close to 10 stingrays and got very close to a squid.
Day 4
The day started off as usual. Same start to the day as every other. However, I changed my breakfast order back to an omelette and I ate it as a sandwich with the toast, which was a very good choice. Today was the best day so far! We had a two tank morning dive lined up over at Carvel Rock. We were hoping to see a lot of really cool marine life and especially excited for the potential of sharks. The visibility was phenomenal (around 60ft) and the temperature was perfect.The dive was amazing! I saw three sharks, barracuda, sea turtle, and plenty of other small fish. We dove about 70ft down for this dive. Gladly, I didn’t have any issues with pressure in my ear. Unfortunately I sucked air like a hog for both dives, which was a bummer. After our dive we went over the South side of Cooper Island for our second dive. For our surface interval time period, Jack, Riley, and I snorkeled over to Cooper Island from our boat and just chilled on the rocks for a while. Getting to the island was fine, but getting out was terrifying because the tide was coming in and everything was covered in fire coral. After we reached the boat we briefed our second dive and headed out. We went over Wreck Alley and looked at a really cool wreck. We saw a Goliath Grooper hanging out at the wreck. The Grooper was probably the coolest thing I have seen on any of my dives with its size being comparable to Mr. Kirby. We saw a bunch of really cool fish and then headed back up to the boat. From there we went to Cooper Island resort where we had fish n chips. The lunch was really awesome! Then we got to snorkel around Cooper island in the sea grass beds. I was able to see a really cool stingray chilling out in the grass. We then left Cooper island and went back home. We changed, showered, and hopped back on the taxi to go to mass. The mass was very good and our priest gave a very good homily (I volunteered to read the second Reading during the mass). After mass we had dinner, where I got to eat first for being a volunteer, which was a nice surprise. After mass we went to dinner (hamburgers and coleslaw). After dinner we went to write up our blogs. After I finish uploading this I’m going to play an intense game of spoons with my very aggressive friends! Today was the best day so far and. I am really excited to go do the coral transplanting tomorrow!
