The day had finally come for the wreck dive. I woke up early and got all my stuff ready in preparation of the inevitable order to pack up tomorrow. I arrived to breakfast starving so I had 3 bowls of cereal with some juice and the group loaded up into the truck to head to the marine for our last day of diving.
Our first dive was the wreck dive which most people were excited for. I made sure I wore a wetsuit this time due to the water temperature drop during wrecks. When we started diving I realized I was too excited for this dive and needed to slow down my breathing because I was absolutely sucking down oxygen. We swam around the front and got a picture on the bow with the ship name, Kodiak Queen. The visibility wasn't good but it added to the eeriness of the ship. Immediately we started seeing neat fish like barracuda and even GIANT schools of fish that were swimming in and out of portholes in the ship. When we ventured around the outside of the ship we saw a massive anchor that was being used as a nursery for small fish. We finally ventured into the ship after checking everyone's oxygen and I discovered I needed a little more work on my buoyancy as I was bobbing up and down through the doorways. The first room we went into was staged with a champagne bottle and office phone that we posed with. Swimming through the room after the photo I also found a Windows tablet that had the screen broken off. The ship was really cool to swim in and out of. We swam inside the welded kraken on the top of the ship and was able to see every little fish that was swimming about. At the end of the dive when we were headed to do the safety stop, me and my dive buddy had the exact same idea. We were swimming by the bow of the ship and had to do the titanic pose on the bow. We were quickly scolded and raced back to the group without an amazing photo in tow. Luckily, the entire experience of the dive completely made up for the lost photo.
Our next dive was on the coral nursery as we were each assigned a tree of coral to clean and rid of all invasive animals. Our tree had a ton of fire coral on it so I gave one of my gloves to my dive partner to use. Unfortunately, the glove doesn't cover the forearm so both of us ended up brushing up against it eventually. It was really fun cleaning the coral and inside the PVC pipes though. We even saw a crab that was wearing sponges as a hat and holding onto the coral for dear life while we were shaking the tree with our cleaning. It was very cool knowing we were contributing to keeping the reefs in the Caribbean safe and clean.
We tied up the boats to each other for lunch and were able to eat on board. We had a cheeto bag fly into the water so we made sure to have the certified lifeguard to dive in and retrieve it. After we ate our sandwiches we put on our fins and mask to go snorkeling in the mangroves where I was able to see a juvenile barracuda. I noticed multiple upside down jellyfish which look amazing but, as some of the group found out, don't feel too well. When agitated the jellyfish actually shoot out spines that dig into the flesh and cause itching and stinging. On the bright side, I was still looking at a hermit crab that took residency in the largest shell I have ever seen. It was too big to lift up to see inside the shell so we took turns free diving down to look inside of it. Right when we got bored we saw a stingray swim under us as it traveled along the coast. I followed it along with Zack, a senior from Marine Biology 2, until it got too deep to watch. We headed back to the boat which was right when the jellyfish attack happened. We were talking about spirit animals with the faculty (apparently I'm a meerkat), when we heard cries of pain from the mangroves. The dive staff treated the stings with a spray they had and soon people were jumping off the boat again and trying to do flips. There were some spectacular backflips and even some bellyflops.
On our way back to shore we saw the smallest sea turtle I have ever seen. We drove by it and one of the dive masters pointed it out as everyone rushed towards the rail to get a look. The turtle was unusually close to the surface but as quick as we saw it, it vanished into the blue of the ocean. As we were putting up our BCDs and tanks a thought crossed my mind. This was the last time we had ever used them and it will be the last time we wash them of the salt that collected on them. Again, it was a bittersweet moment. I was exhausted of the water and wanted to just stay on land for a while but I still loved the diving and couldn't believe it was all over and I would never get this opportunity again unlike the underclassman. Hopefully they appreciate the experience enough to do it again in Marine Biology 2 because I know for sure I would.
