Location: Great Harbor, Peter Island
Day 9. Hi, everyone. My name is Mason, and I will be guiding you through this day’s adventure, from shoe losses to night diving. Today, we woke up this morning to a classic tradition of Darude Sandstorm being played for what we like to call Rhone Day (dun dun dun). Before we headed to the wreck, we anchored next to an island called Salt Island, which was given to the natives by the Queen of England after they recovered 125 of the bodies from the wreck in exchange for 1 pound of salt each year. On the island, we hiked up to the tallest point, but before we reached the peak, we had to cross the sea of no return (it was just a river with mud); many shoes were lost* to the sea of no return, unfortunately. The rest of the island excursion was lots of picture-taking and rock-throwing. Now, onto the bigger question: what is Rhone Day? Well, on one faithful morning, the RMS Rhone was traveling from Great Harbour Peter to Open Ocean due to an unexpected hurricane that was rolling in. The sister ship that was traveling with the RMS Rhone (RMS Conway) decided to transfer all 145 that were transferred to the RMS Rhone due to its reputation of being unsinkable (we know how this might turn out *cough* *cough* Titanic). In short, the ship sank, but as they say, another man’s garbage is another man’s treasure, and thankfully, due to this sinkage, we were able to explore the wrecked ship and take in the beauty of the natural wildlife that inhabited it and saw lobsters that were this big (imagine I’m stretching my arms out really long). We even got extremely spoiled by seeing two eagle rays at the end of our 3-minute safety stop. I also may mention that the seas of Rhone Day were very rough, but luckily, all of us survived with all limbs and bones attached, so that was a plus. Afterward, we sailed back to Great Harbour Bay, where we rafted with another boat named Pure Joy, which was the first night we had rafted after nine days, so it was a nice relief. On the menu tonight, we had Taco Tuesday by Jasper the Great and Maya the Grater of Cheese, which, in my opinion, was exquisite (*French Kiss*). Later on, after we cleaned up, we set up our gear and started our second night dive, which included instructional skills like night diving with a compass and 3 minutes of lights out, which allowed us to see the bioluminescence of the water-based world we live in. We did run into some jellyfish, and unfortunately, I got stung across my whole left arm, but I lived. All in all, today has ups and downs that everyone will never forget.
Mason, Will, Reese, Megan, Maya, Jasper, Lucy, Sean, Parker, Paloma, Malea, Katie, and Parker
*staff note: the shoes were recovered!