Location: Sandy Spit, Green Cay
Today was day 12. We started the day off with some scrambled eggs, bacon bits, and fruit. After breakfast, we took the dinghy over to another boat (Good Times) for our first dive of the day at the “Playgrounds.” We did a back roll entry into the water. We all swam to the bow, and the Dolphins and Neptunes separated into different dive groups. The Dolphins went on a research dive led by Gordon. They collected data for their project while the Neptunes went on a fun dive. Jake led the Neptunes, and during the dive, we saw four sharks and one spotted eagle ray. Ruby and Alivia were my dive buddies. We also saw a Lionfish and many sea urchins. After the dive, Maddie and Calvin started making lunch. Lauren, Jules, Teddy, Darby, and Calvin taught me how to play a card game called “President”.
Maddie was making some mac and cheese and somehow managed to boil the cheese in the water, creating a questionable concoction of hot cheese water, which we all took a sip of. The Mac and cheese still turned out to be good, and we added extra cheese to make it even better. After lunch, the Neptunes relaxed while the Dolphins took a test to work towards their research diver certification. Gabriel and Alivia practiced driving the dinghy with Megan and after dinghy driving, Megan took Maddie, Gabriel, Ruby and I to the mini beach island. On this island, we practiced handstands, cartwheels, front/back walkovers, and more. Ruby, Maddie, and I also went snorkeling. Once we got back to the boat, the dolphins completed their test and headed up for the “Moon” dive.
A moon dive is a special dive where you don’t have fins and have extra weights, so you are able to walk on the sea floor, which feels like you are on the moon. This dive was especially fun because of all the tricks we could do underwater. We were backflipping, crawling, jumping, and more. Ruby, Jules, Kieran, Lauren, and I saw two flounders, one huge sting ray, and a hermit crab. During this dive, Emma Y and Maddie got lost and surfaced a little too far from the boat, but they found their way back. After this dive, we played cards and napped. Then we started getting ready for the beach barbecue. Once we got on the island, we formed a line to eat and met up with our friends from the other boats. Kieran did a backflip with some help from Jules. The barbecue lasted for two hours, and we headed back to our boat for night showers. Then, we got settled into bed.