Roatan, 3 fantastic days in 9/2

   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.