Whoa! These past few days have been pretty crazy and very busy but it’s all done and now it’s time to let you all know what has been going on down here. Yesterday was a very tiring day. Once we all got up and boarded the boat, we were told that we would be turtle tagging. This is when we snorkel around a reef, dive down to catch a turtle, bring it to the surface and tag it in order to study it. However, that was easier said than done. At first, we were all dragged by the boat and only had a rope to hold onto. Unfortunately, we did not see any turtles. So we traveled to different reefs to find some and finally we did. Then, the tricky part came along when we had to try and catch one. Every time we came close to grabbing one, it would swim away as fast as possible. Luckily, we were able to find one but it was already tagged. After we were done turtle tagging, we made our way to Baths, an area of beach that is inside a cave. We made our way through and snorkeled to a beach where we had a cookout and celebrated Duncan’s and Jackson’s birthday. We played ultimate frisbee, ate burgers and hotdogs and finally did a night snorkel where we saw a squid and a lot of stingrays.
Yup,Yesterday was eventful but today was more exciting. After we arrived at the marina, we made our way to the wreck of the RMS Rhones. This ship was an old steamboat that got thrown into a rock by a hurricane and had its boiler explode after impact. The funny thing is that the crew only had one casualty, that being the captain, while the other crew members lived and only one passenger survived. I was excited to check this wreck out. Once we made our way down for our dive, we inspected the bow of the ship. However, that as not the interesting part. As soon as we started our second dive, I was having a blast. In this dive, we looked through the stern of the ship. It was here where we saw some pretty interesting stuff. For example, we came across an actual silver spoon that had melted onto a piece of metal after the ship’s boiler exploded. Also, the one surviving passenger’s porthole was still intact. The dive instructors called it “Lucky Porthole #26”. They told us to go down and rub it. They said that if you rub it three times in a clockwise motion, you would get an Italian meal, and Italian car and an Italian girlfriend. However if you did it counter clockwise, you would get the same items, but they would all be British. I rubbed it clockwise so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. After there, we had some delicious fish and chips and did a small snorkel of the reef. Finally, we came back, went to mass, and had some barbecue for dinner. All in all, this was a fun two days and I heard that we are going to be transplanting coral tomorrow. Wish us luck!
