Location: Muskmelon Bay, Guana Island
We started this day off on a slightly rocky start, with the place we anchored having some swell and rocking the boat a bit as we awoke. Fortunately, right after breakfast, we sailed off to an absolutely amazing shipwreck that we dove and took pictures of for the Dolphins’ digital photography session and Neptune’s wreck diving specialty. It was truly one of the most interesting and well-preserved vessels I’ve ever dove, and after a hearty lunch of a tortilla covered in crunchy peanut butter and hot sauce with strawberry jelly, we sailed to our current spot. After snorkeling and scouting the area, we had dinner, which was a rich stroganoff with salad and garlic bread. We kitted up for our third night dive. Once we entered the water, our lights cut through the living ocean and faded out at the bottom, the comb jellies and krill that swarmed our hands disappearing and re-emerging from the murk with every move. The reef takes on an alien, entirely eerie presence with the rise of the moon, strobe lights, and purple swathes from the other boats, dimly illuminating the sandy highway where bristle stars and blue tangs darted about. The dive lights that seemed so blinding at the surface became meek and dim as each swept across the ocean floor, and the seemingly infinite ocean swallowed up every lumen until the dark consumed your vision once again. The click-clack of the giant spiny lobsters scurrying around the rocks being heard but not seen, the pops and clicks of the unseen life darting into every nook and cranny to hide, the inking squid’s chromatophores flashing colors as it darts away into the murk. Surfacing, the mooring lines’ strobe flashing beneath, the milky way and the dense speckling of stars above, and the distant city roads cutting through the faraway islands like veins running amok became the sight to see. With an amazing end to day ten and all the beautiful dives and sights that came with it, I can say with confidence that I cannot wait for what tomorrow’s adventures bring.