Today I woke up ant 6 and worked out a little. Ryan brought a band that is good for working out, I took a shower and at seven everyone got up. Once we were all together we ate breakfast. I had hot Oates and a nice ham and cheese omelet. After that we got on the boat and did two dives. The first dive was awesome. The main goal of the dives were fish identification. We went down and I saw a lot of different fish. This was at Paul’s Grotto. The deepest we went was 70 feet and I felt fine. We had an hour surface interval and we jumped on and went snorkeling.
Joseph and I saw a moon jelly and we dove down and touched it. I love touching moon jellies. Finally we got suited up again in out wet suits and jumped in. This time was still fun be extremely painful for me. I equalized fine but my skull was throbbing and it was extremely painful. It hurts really bad and I started crying against my will. This has happened on planes too. I don’t really know what’s going on. So anyway, Joseph and I saw a lot of the same fish and stuff as we saw earlier. Joseph and I saw a squid and huge lobster. After that we had lunch and we went snorkeling and to the baths with Sarah, Casey, and Andrea. That was awesome! We saw a lot of cool rock formations in the baths and there were even models talking pictures down in there. That’s how beautiful it was down there. Finally, we came out on a beach and there were a lot of people. We jumped in the salt water and went snorkeling. The snorkeling was fun and we saw a lot of fish and plant life. We could dive down( skin dive), which we practiced when we got certified and could take a closer look at something’s. I got that skull sensation again and it hurt. Once we were done with that, we played a little on the beach. Joseph, Ryan and I swan about 50-60 yards away from a huge rock and we swam to it. It was a great workout gong and coming back. ( I’m still trying to stay healthy but it’s hard when you’re given French fries and other stuff) we walked back and we got ready for dinner. We had a little time before dinner so me, John, Matt, Hank, Ryan B., and Eliott played Uno. I won the last game. Finally we ate a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant and now I’m finishing up writing this on my deck. Just like last night, I’m just chilling it under the stars. Nobody else is around and I’m listening to country music and it is an amazing night and experience out here.
Day Three
Today it took me a little while to get up. Once again, I had a very strange dream. I finally got up at 7:30 when the alarm went of at 7:00. I quickly got ready and John, Ryan and I were down waiting for the bus by 7:50. We went to the same place as yesterday for our breakfast and I got another ham and cheese omelet. After that, my group got on the boat the Sea Monkey and we went out to do the Rhone dive. Now that dive was insane. On the boat and in the surface interval between the two dives we did today, they told us the story of how the Rhone sank and some ghost stories and so on. We were told that if we feel a tug at our fins, then it was one of the ghosts of the poor person that died during the storm that sank the ship. Of course, having a bunch of 16 and 17 years old, all the guys were tugging at each other’s fins just for fun. The first dove we did the bow of the ship and the deepest we went I think was 85 feet to something like that. There was a swim though section that we did and it was cool because I imagined it as a hallway and people walking through it before the storm. Now, it is so different with all the plant life and all the marine life living and swimming around the ship. After that we went to the surface and a little later we went back under. I was feeling some sharp skull pain about 40 feet when we were ascending and I kept that in mind for this next dive. This was the stern and it was about 30-40 feet shallower than what we did earlier. This was cool also because we saw a lot more fish and I could actually see recognizable parts of the ship. I saw black and white tiles of the corridors of the ship and I saw a window. It was one of those typical submarine looking circle windows. I also urged a circular piece of metal that was supposed to give us good luck if we rubbed it clockwise three times. This dive, something strange happened. I kept seeing green liquid collecting up in my mask. I thought this was wierd but I don’t freak out or anything. I just thought it was skull or eye juice that is leaking out because of my skull hurting so much. Finally, when we ascended and I took of my mask, I watched that green eye juice turn red and I looked around and dome of the guys were looking at me strange. This has happened so any times throughout my karate experience and I recognized those looks. I lifted my hand and swiped under my nose. I had a bloody nose and it was leaking like a faucet. I had blood all over my face, so I just dunked under and thanked God there was no shark around. The thing is since colors fade the deeper we go, the blood looks green because we can’t see red. We entire to Cooper Island for lunch and we had fish and chips. We hung out on the island for a while and then we snorkeled some more. I stuck with Joseph and we saw a lot of stuff. We pointed put four sting rays about 25 feet below us in one spot. Joseph pointed out a barracuda under one of the sailboats but it was hard to see. We did that for about two hours. Finally we came back to Virgin Gorda and now I’m in the cabin before dinner writing this for today. We are going to eat dinner on the beach again tonight and then head out for a night snorkel. If I remember, I’ll write about that. I’m not sure if we will have internet access so…
Hey, I just got back from the night dive and it was awesome! Joseph and I partnered up(as usual) and we were the last ones to go into the water. Before we even put our heads in though, Joseph spotted a really small shiny blue trumpet fish swimming on the surface of the water. I saw a lot of those the deeper we got. Waving our flashlights around, Joseph and I saw a lot of small little worms that would swarm around me and start biting me. It was really annoying and somewhat painful. Joseph suggested that they were just cleaning us and taking away the harmful bacteria. We kept swimming around and we saw two huge hermit crabs and a really small squid. We also saw a moon jelly that I couldn’t help but dove down and touch it. We saw some more shiny blue trumpet fish and more just shiny blue tiny fish. Joseph and I just swam around som rocks and explored more before we wrapped it up and headed back to the beach.
