We woke up around 6:45 Sunday morning and threw on our swimsuits that we knew we were going to be in for a majority of the day. We headed to breakfast at the marina and right after, we went to our boats to get ready for the two dives. The Sea Monkey and the Sea Dragon split up and went to different dive sites. The first dive was an exciting and fun dive and it was one of my favorites so far because of the vast fish life and corals I saw. The bright and/or neon blues and greens on both fish and plant were spectacular and took me by surprise. It was also awesome because my dive partner, Matt Taylor, and I saw a large spiny lobster in a little crevice under some coral. The dive came to a close and we had a one hour surface interval to make sure we got a majority of the nitrogen out of our system, which would allow us to have a longer bottom time for the second dive. To kill some time, we all hopped into the water to snorkel and explore the Caribbean floor. While snorkeling, we saw one of the two reef sharks about thirty-five feet down. It was only about two or three feet long, but it was a cool site to see the shark cruising down by the sea floor. After the surface interval, we geared up for our second dive. The second dive was a good dive, but it was also more challenging then the others because of the strong bottom current that we had to go against for the whole dive. This current meant that we all used oxygen quicker than we normally would and a good example was Joey Parks dropping down to two hundred psi. Even though he was really low I on air, everything went smoothly because he let Jessica, our dive instructor, aware of his situation. Besides that little hiccup, the dive was a good one and I was able to see both sharks that are believed to be residents of West Dog Island. Some other exciting creatures I saw were the Queen Trigger Fish, Spiny Lobster, and Four Eyed Butterfly Fish, and I’d have to say the Queen Trigger Fish was my favorite because of the unique way it swam in comparison to other fish. We headed back to the Marina where we ate lunch and got ready for our next event, which was the Baths and snorkel.
We walked from our place at Guavaberry to the Baths which was about a third of a mile. The Baths were interesting and we learned about some of the history and how they came to form. The Baths are basically large rocks squeezed together in a fashion that allowed some water and sunlight to get in, but not all. Some of the places inside the Bath have been dry for extremely long periods of time even through hurricanes and other large storms. After the lesson on the Baths, we got in the water to snorkel back to Guavaberry. During the snorkel I saw various fish and a lots of black sea urchins. It was also cool because there were different structures underwater that I was able to dive down and go through or under. We finished the snorkel and went to dinner at the Baths. It had a really nice lookout and there was a great breeze that night. After dinner, we headed back to our cabins amd crashed for the night.
Today, we woke up around 6:45 and went to the same breakfast place at the marina. We ate quickly and then headed to our boats for the world-famous Rhone Dive. We first explored the Bow of the ship and did an awesome swim through. While entering the cavern, I came within 6 feet of a large barracuda and it was an adrenaline rushing experience. We then continued to explore the wreck, including the boiler and other pieces of the wreck. We ended our dive and did our one hour surface interval. During that, we learned about the Rhone and how it sunk during a strong storm. The captain was the first to die and the crew also went overboard, but they all lived. Only one passenger lived and he was an Italian man. After, we geared back up and did our stern dive. There we saw the propeller and the room number of the one Italian man who survived, room 26. The dive ended and we headed to lunch.
Cooper Island was our next location and we had an amazing lunch of fish and chips. We then went snorkeling and saw two turtles and multiple barracudas and tarpon. After the snorkel, we headed back to our cabins and hung out until dinner. Around 6:30 we headed to dinner and followed that was the night snorkel. The night snorkel was a lot of fun and really interesting. My favorite part of it was when we put two hermit crabs together and they fought. I had 20 bucks on the left one (Mr. Krabs) and he was definitely the dominant one. We headed back to shore and the cabins for the night.
