Day 10 - July 6th

Today was a good day due to a bad problem. We were scheduled to go out on the boat, all four interns and Jim to do two of the certification dives for our Advanced Open Water. These were the Deep Dive and Navigation Dive. However, upon getting on the boat and out at the dive site we discovered that the emergency oxygen tank onboard was empty. Not wanting to risk anything Jim called off the Deep Dive, and also the Navigation dive so that they would still be done together later.

However, not wanting to waste the charter and the day we got to do two shallower photo dives. It was a great time and the dives were really awesome. The first dive was to a site called Eel Cove, which was a large semiciricle that stayed shallow then dropped off really deep really fast. We explored that area for awhile, then got back on the boat and headed to the second site.

The second place we went was called Fish Rock because the Sgt. Major fish goes there to lay its eggs (millions upon millions), then it takes off and tons of other fish come in and start to eat the eggs. These fish are so preoccupied with eating the eggs that you can get extremely close to them and they don't swim away. It was insane because there were just so many fish all over the place. So what could have been a disaster of a day turned out to be really fun.

That evening after the dives Richard, Jake and I went and picked up a rental car, then did a Walmart run in preparation for our trip to the Volcano this weekend. In fact we are leaving just about as soon as I finish this post and we get a few more videos packaged for mailing. We don't have much of a plan (which is hard for me) other than to drive to the volcano and see everything we can. We're camping out (cause its cheaper) and then driving back around the opposite side of the island. It should be awesome!

Day 9 - July 5th

Today was a slow day, which meant I had the morning off. I relaxed, read my book and hung out with Jake teaching him photoshop. The lack of something to do allowed me to create a "family of geckos" it was entertaining. (note: there was only one gecko in this picture to start, can you figure out which one?)

That evening I got to go on the nightly Manta dive again. On top of that I got to (finally) use my new wetsuit that I had gotten on Saturday!! It fit wonderfully and kept me oh so warm and comfortable! (its a Pinnacle, 5mm full suit) :o)

These night dives are pretty amazing. Martina was acting in dual roles as both dive master and videographer, so it's pretty stressful for her and since there was extra room it is helpful that we can go to act as safety divers. I got to help out even more because I helped to lead us all to the dive site from the boat. Also we ran into a slight problem at the dive site and Martina and one of the divers had to surface so I helped by watching the other diver and holding the camera while she was helping him. It was pretty cool.

Unfortunately it was a slower night for the Manta, we only saw one, but had a cool time exploring the reef on our way back to the boat where I got a good picture of an undulated eel.