My class issued camera is officially out of commission. I checked the battery last night and it leaked acid. I’m pretty upset, I’m finally getting better at diving down and there’s so much to see. But I have nothing to capture the images except my memory. At least I have that I guess.

Today was probably the best and worst day of the marine section of the trip all rolled into one. We went out to the fore reef in the first part of the morning. It was really cool, probably the deepest waters I’ve ever been in. We saw a ginormous Spotted Eagle Ray, it was swimming around on the ocean floor. I finally got the hang of diving, which was good because out here there’s not much to see near the surface. After we went outside the reef crest and did some drift snorkeling where we let the current carry us. We saw a pretty sizable Nurse Shark that was over 6 ft. The motion of the unbroken waves started to make me feel a little queazy in the water, and only got worse when I got back onto the boat. I was pretty out of it for a while.

In the early afternoon, we did some data analysis and a presentation session. This gave me some time to recover from the sea sickness. Later in the afternoon, we went to the back reef right off the island. There was so much diversity in what was out there. Scott, Adrienne, and the water safety instructors were out catching Lionfish, I helped spot two of them.

I’m starting to like the water more and more. Boats not so much. I’m pretty bummed out by the camera thing, but oh well.

-Randy