Location: Marina Cay
This morning we were woken up by the wobble, as we had competed in a wobble competition last night against Hope. I love being woken up by music, since it puts everyone in such a happy mindset to start the day. We had a very nutritious meal of cereal for breakfast, and Alli found out one of our milks had gone bad the hard way—by drinking it—definitely not the best breakfast start. Immediately, we got underway, leaving Mountain Point (thank god, there were so many flies and bees) and making our way over to a dive site at the dogs. The dogs are a group of little islands, and they have amazing diving. After a little motor on over, we moored at a dive spot called The Visibles. After a quick dishipit, all of the Divemasters and advanced divers set up our gear and got ready to dive. The Divemasters got to have a fun dive, while we advanced people did our fish ID dive. This is where we go down with a slate, a piece of plastic that you can write on underwater, and draw a couple of fish, adding defining characteristics, then at the end of the dive, we go through our fish book and find out which fish we saw. We all splashed and made our way to the bow of Nacho, but the current was absolutely ripping.
After a bit of struggle, we descended and began our dive. The reef was beyond gorgeous and so so healthy. The biodiversity was beyond and partway into our dive, Jack showed me a completely lobster shell, which was super duper cool. The fish were magnificent, and it was amazing to see such a healthy environment. We continued our dive, all of us advanced divers using our peak performance buoyancy that we recently practiced. Once we began ascending, we immediately began to feel the current again. We all had to grab onto our dinghy, Paco, so we wouldn’t float away. We finally got safety back on the boat and got underway so fast. Tati and Paloma were so great at helping with the mooring ball, getting us off the first one, and onto the second one. We had to most amazing lunch of delicious Kraft mac and cheese made by Nathan and Alicia, and Parker loaded his up with so much salt and hot sauce we think he might have a heart attack. Dishipit occurred, and for the second time today, Jack forgot he was the dish dryer. We chilled out during our surface time, Aria and I lying out on the hard top, soaking in the sun and the fresh Caribbean breeze. Alli found out she could change the color of her dive computer pink, Tati made friendship bracelets (we have been on our grind), Tati especially has been on her grind, making about ten already.
Finally, the DM’s did another tank run, and we set up our gear for the second dive of the day! This time we were at a site called The Chimneys, and it was absolutely gorgeous once again. We descended, the DM’s doing a navigation/fun dive, and we advanced, doing our second fish ID dive. When we followed Toby through this super cool swim through in a crack in this massive rock, we were skinny, and the colors in the crack and all over were beyond gorgeous. Tati saw a baby pufferfish, Paloma saw tigger fish, Anne-Faye saw a goofy-looking peacock fish, and I saw this weird-looking tang. Thankfully, there was almost no current on this dive, making it a bit more chill. We ran into the DM’s as we all made our way back to the boat, and during our three-minute stop, Liam and Toby were super successful in making bubble rings while the rest of us failed miserably. At the surface, Liam and Nathan told us how they saw the coolest moon jelly. This was an amazing dive overall.
We motored over to Marina Cay, all of us sitting up top, soaking in the warm sun and breeze. We sailors dropped the anchor, and McKenzie got super excited since we all saw a turtle. Nathan and Alicia made us a yummy meal of tortellini, while we got a new bag of toilet paper. I know some people need more (shhhh, Liam and Parker). We had the most amazing dinner and squeezed telling everyone which animal we would like to be, including whales, manta rays, rats, monkeys, feather duster worms, koalas, and so much more. We cleaned up to the most amazing song, Take it Off, and now we’re all on top, talking, listening to music, and waiting for our nightly activity. I can’t believe we are already halfway through. I wish for these moments of pure bliss staring at the ocean with the wind hitting our faces to never end. I love these people with my whole heart, and I can’t wait for the rest of the trip.
So much love, Peyton
P.S. Mom and Dad, I love you guys so much, but I don’t want to come home and tell Rhys and Cameron that I can’t wait to see them when I get home, and everyone on my boat knows all about them.