Not gunna lie, I was pretty hyped up for today and it did not disappoint. Today was expected to be great because today was for turtle tagging. After a lecture on sea turtles of the area and sea turtles in general we learned that the two prime suspects of our hunt were going to be the green sea turtle and the hawksbill, there was a slim chance of seeing a leatherback, which I would love to see in real life, but woes me we didn’t see one. The first attempt made at catching turtles was made using a method that was basically speed snorkeling. The boat dragged two ropes behind it and we would hold onto them armed with our fins, mask and snorkel, this method failed horribly. For the first ten minutes it was fine and very enjoyable but then we began to pass moon jellies so most of us focused upon dogging the incoming fire rather than looking for turtles. My turn ended when there was shrill shrieks of pain from behind me as a fellow jesuit was slammed head on by a jelly. After we have up on speed snorkeling we went regular snorkeling in a place we knew that frequented turtles. Upon entering the water I immediately saw one and went for it. It slipped through my grasp but hey I touched a wild sea turtle, pretty radical right? In the end it was Luke who snagged a big old fifty pounder. The second half of the day was spent at the baths national park. It was a beautiful hike through rocky caves that ended with a breathtaking snorkel back to the beach near our temporary homes. I was lucky enough to see a trunk fish, one of my favorite fish. Then we had a nice grill out on the beach and the day ended with a night snorkel in which I found squid and stingrays.
It is amazing how each day consistently surpasses the last here, every single day is more fun, amazing and beautiful. Today we dove the Roan and it was absolutely wonderful, In fact it was phat. The Rhone isn’t just some wreck it was the wreck of one of Britain’s most renowned first class passenger ships of its time, which wast the nineteenth century. unfortunately their was a good chunk of it was missing due to the steam explosion that sank it. The phatest part was the fact that you could actually swim through the hull in which we found a barracuda that is apparently a frequent visitor of the Rhone. My favorite fish at the site however were the yellow headed jaw fish. After two dives in the Rhone we headed to Cooper island where we got some fetch fish and chip and snorkeled in an underwater grass bed. The grass bed was beautiful and full of great organic diversity. I saw everything from sand tile fish to barracudas, schools of squids and even a sea turtle. I was excited to see the garden eels, small green eels who look like sea weed, while they poked in and out of their holes whenever we approached. When it came to the daily seahorse hunt, alas there were none, which disappointed the Warsaw warhammer (Mr. Golab) and myself greatly. The day ended with mass at the top of a hill with a very lovely view of the island. So to sum it all up, despite the gnarly sunburn on the back of of my legs it was a marvelous day.
