Day 2:
We started today out by having breakfast and immediately getting on the boats to dive. The water was again clear enough that you could almost see the bottom of the ocean from the boat and you could see at least 50 feet in front of you while you were down there. We got to West Dog Island for our first dive through a series of reefs where we saw plenty of Yellowtail and Squirrel Fish. We also came across a Lion Fish and speared it. We eventually saw a Reef Shark from a distance. After our surface interval, we began our next dive around a similar reef with more Parrot Fish only this time, we swam into a small cave and observed the coral and small fish that lived there. With both dives we saw a lot of both Fire Coral and bleached Staghorn. Later that afternoon, we went for a hike through open caves until we arrived at the Devil’s Bay baths, which was a popular snorkeling site. We snorkelled for a while and saw a lot of natural reef formations up close and observed more Yellowtail. We swam through the baths up to the beach a short walk away from our houses. That night we had dinner overlooking the ocean and surrounding islands and ended the day. There was a lot more we were able to pack into today than yesterday and I definitely had more fun.
Day 3:
We started today the same way as yesterday by getting right on the boats after breakfast only this time we had much longer and deeper dives. For both dives, we dove along the wreck of the RMS Rhone. We reached depths of about 75-80 feet which is the most I have ever dove before. For the first dive we explored the bow which was separate to the rest of the ship as the Rhone was in pieces. We even got to swam through part of the hull and observed the different fish around there. We must have come across about 100 Squirrel fish who like the wreck because it offers a lot of dark spaces as they are nocturnal fish. We also saw a lot of different variations of Angel fish along the wreck. On the second dive we went across the rest of the wreck which has turned into an artificial reef at this point because the ship has been down there for so long. We saw some more huge Yellowfish and a couple of different types of Snappers. We also saw a small octopus swimming around. After diving we took the boats to Cooper Island for lunch. After lunch we went snorkeling over the reef on the coast of Cooper Island and observed a couple of Stingray and green Sea Turtles. Once we got back to our houses we had some downtime before heading to dinner on the beach. After dinner, we got in the water with flashlights for a night snorkel. We saw a bunch of species we don’t usually see during the daytime. We saw a few Stingrays, Hermit Crabs, Squid, Lobster, Needlefish, and Moon Jellyfish. It was a pretty fun way to end the day and I am looking forward to the turtle tagging tomorrow.
