Monday, September 2, 2013

Roatan, 3 fantastic days in

   Great trip so far... Saw a nice big school of little squid yesterday, and a few more today--was able to get a video up close. A couple of large barracuda, one of which came close enough to make my heart pause for a second. Turtles, ocean triggerfish (much larger than I remembered), another adult spotted drum, garden eels, jawfish, nudibranch, trunkfish, lots of parrotfish and butterflyfish, a large gray angelfish, queen angels, trumpetfish, fairy basslets, snapper... And my best find to date: an octopus hiding in broad daylight. He was hunkered down in the seagrass shaped like an open umbrella. I saw the only thing moving: his gills. Then his eye.
   I was SO excited to show it to my dive buddy, Dan, who had saved my (very expensive) flashlight earlier on the dive. I was too low on air to dive down the 80' to retrieve it when it slipped right off my wrist. I felt lucky to be able to repay him, in a sense.
   Also excited because I was bummed to have not seen octopi on last night's 9:30 pm dive, or this morning's 4:45 am dive.
   Started my wreck diving certification today (mapping ships is HARD and requires strong on-land and in-water communication and teamwork!); also working on advanced open water. For that I've done a deep dive (it only has to be 61', but I went down to 90' today), a night dive, a wreck dive, a boat dive, and I think all I need to do is navigation Finished my night dive certification, which only requires two dives and an instructor signing. 
   It's like school but the studying is way more fun.

No comments:

Post a Comment