The day started off the same again but breakfast was at tamarind cabin this morning. My friend Miles and Wyatt, who are rising juniors, came in clutch by changing breakfast up a bit. They paid extra money to buy eggs for everyone and scrambled them up and it was very generous of them. After breakfast, everyone walked down to the cattle guard where Glenn picked us up and brought us to the dock at 8:30ish. He brought us to the harbor. We walked down to the boats, set up our dive gear, and headed straight out for the site of the sunken Rhone ship. Gaz gave us the briefing before the dive and told us to watch out for the current and to look out for marine creatures hiding underneath parts of the ship. My group did two dives at this area: the first at the bow and the second at the stern and mid section. After setting the gear up, jumping in the water, and descending and beginning the dive, the Rhone was pretty much the exact same as it was last year. The only difference is that I saw a lot more big marine life last year than I did this year. Last year, I saw a 4-5 foot long barracuda, a lion fish, and an octopus that really stuck out to me. This year on both of the Rhone dives, I really only saw one big hog fish about two feet long and a barracuda about 3 feet long. The dive was still fascinating though. In between dives during our surface interval, Gaz related the whole story of the Rhone and how it sank to us. Specifically, he told us to rub the window of room 26 three times in the clock wise direction for good luck and told us to look out for big wrenches, and even captain Willies spoon that we found. It was greatly covered by coral. I took a lot of photos with my Go Pro of the ship itself and many of the reef organisms there. I saw a massive lobster as well. The ship was built in the mid 1800s and it sank in a horrific tropical storm in the late 1800s. After the two dives, Gaz drove the boat over to Cooper Island. There, we sat ourselves down at the restaurant and ate fish and chips which was one of the things I was looking forward to the whole trip! After that, I walked over to the other side of the dock and bought two shirts and some ice cream. We relaxed there for about an hour and then decided to jump into the water again for a snorkel. I snorkeled for about another hour until my mask fogged up constantly and until my ear kept bothering me, which it still does. I saw 2 eagle Rays, one stingray, and a green sea turtle on the snorkel and it was a lot of fun! After everyone boarded Sea Monkey and Sea Dragon, we headed back to the marina, cleaned ourselves off, and walked down to the Wifi room to work on our BVI projects. I made a lot of headway on the project and will be ready to present the information tomorrow before dinner. At 6:30pm, everyone walked down to the beach for dinner and we ate beef wraps and chicken wraps with beans and rice as sides. Dinner was amazing and Beth, another dive leader, made cupcakes for everyone which were absolutely amazing! Watching the sunset simultaneously was amazing too. After dinner, we walked back to the Wifi room to continue work on the project and blogs and then walked back to the cabin to end the night. I went to bed around 9:30pm and the day was very exhausting. I am starting to get a little nervous about the project presentation but I am trying to keep a cool and calm head, making the experience worthwhile.
