Location: Great Harbor, Peter Island
Blog: The morning sun rose as I continued to sleep. It took a few tries from Cici, but after we woke up, we were moving. After a quick bowl of cereal, we began talking about the most important part of the day: diving the RMS Rhone. Once an ‘unsinkable’ mailing ship, this wreck was located at about 35 feet under the surface, the 170 years allowing all kinds of species of coral and marine life to grow and thrive across it. After sailing to the site, we set up our tanks excitedly and prepared for our dive, as this would also be the first step in getting our wreck diver certifications.
The dive itself was awesome. We managed to spot a large trumpetfish, multiple spiny lobsters hiding underneath the wreckage, and an extremely large porcupine fish. There were strong currents near and around the wreckage as well that we had to navigate, and we even got to swim through a portion of the wreckage. We did not see the pregnant seahorse that we were so excited to see, but we also did not see many jellyfish today, which was especially good for me.
Once we came out of the water, we then got to hike up Salt Island, a small island that is well known for supplying the Queen’s (Now King’s RIP) Christmas table salt. The hike was fun, and we got a nice view of the surrounding area of the island. After Nolan collected a coconut, we left the island and had a ramen lunch on the boat. We proceeded to sail to GHP (Great Harbor Peter Island), where we hung out for a bit and got to snorkel the site for our night dive. We moved across, away from the site, to raft with three other boats. After setting up the equipment for the dive, we waited anxiously for the sun to set and the fun to begin.
It took two trips in Rango to get everyone across to Soul Rebel, the last boat and the one we would be diving off of. After we were dropped off, we were given the okay to begin our descent into the dark depths below. The night dive was dark and cloudy. With silt in the water, we began to rely on our compasses to do our underwater navigation. After escaping the silt cloud and approaching a sheer wall of coral, we began to search for interesting wildlife. While we didn’t see sharks, eels, or rays this time, we did see a few arrow crabs and lobsters. We somehow managed to stay clumped together in one large group as we explored and somehow managed not to run into each other too roughly. After surfacing, we ascended and loaded into Rango and Shaka to return to Aloha and everyone else in the raft to mingle before heading off to bed….