Location: Great Harbor, Jost van Dyke

As the sun rose over the horizon, we woke up to an appetizing breakfast of blueberry muffins, yogurt, and fruit made by Nina and Alex. While eating breakfast, we set sail to Great Harbor Peter, where we would do two really cool dives! Once we arrived, Pablo, Diego Maeve, and I (Ben) moored us at our new dive site. After finishing breakfast dishie pit was set up by Ruby, Antonio, Pablo, and Diego. Soon after, we got our first dive briefing for the day. Our first dive for the Dolphins (Nina, Mimi, Emma, Humphrey, Stormy, Alex, and I) did Underwater Photography. The Neptunes (Antonio, Pablo, Diego, Ruby, and Henry) completed their deep dive for their advanced course.

We all splashed in, and then, descending down the line, we saw some pretty cool things like feather dusters and gobies. Coming up from the dive, we put our gear away and relaxed around the boat. Some of us rested, and some of us had some fun in the water. As the afternoon came to an end, Antonio and I set up our scuba gear or “kits.” Soon after, other people did the same. We then had dinner made by our fantastic chefs, Alex and Nina. Dinner was a great risotto, some corn, and Caesar salad. At the end of dinner, the sun dipped below the horizon, and the light faded, giving us the perfect environment for a night dive!

Once clean-up ended, Kyler gave us a great dive briefing with a compass skill to complete. Then, everyone came to the bow to get their gear on. Then we headed to the stern of the boat to do buddy checks and splash in. Shortly after, the descent began into the pitch-black water, with our dive lights lighting up the ocean floor. During the dive, everyone completed their compass skills flawlessly! The fun part of the dive then started! Everyone saw some huge tarpons with glowing yellow eyes in the dark, and when some of us shone our dive lights on them, their scales would shine in an orderly fashion.

Another thing I saw was a spider crab. As I approached, it became defensive and started to protect itself. My dive buddy also pointed out a seltzer can, so I picked it up to bring back to the boat to throw out. Soon, it was time to turn around our last dive of the day. We climbed up the ladder and disassembled our kits, took a night shower, settled down for the night, and went to sleep.