by Adler Guirgues
Monday Aug.8th
Today we had the great chance to go diving with sharks through emerald charters. On the first dive, we dove down to 80 feet, chumming the whole way. We got to see four different types of sharks, and they include: Sandbar sharks, Silkie sharks, and a single bull shark at the beginning of the dive. After a short trip up and a small interval, we switched tanks and headed down again. Some of us didn’t have the opportunity, because of the toss and rock of the waves. So we helped from where we could and chummed the waters from above. Throughout the second dive, the rest of our group hopped from wreck to wreck, and saw huge crowds of Goliath groupers. Those of us who were still on deck, most gratefully enjoyed a pleasant and nice nap, while the others fought the current below. Soon all were up and ready again with replenished air. We were down again for the 3rd and last dive, many of us were going up and down grabbing sand dollars that number the floor, or others like Morgan relaxed, kocked back and did the the dive upside down. Coming up hands full of Sand dollars, we packed up and headed back for a wonderful dinner and a hard time trying to find the air bnb. Lastly we hit the rack.
Tuesday Aug. 9th
This morning the MOGs woke up early at 6:00 A.M.! After getting dressed, we all either ate breakfast or loaded gear into the back of Mrs. Byrns Van. We began driving to Key Largo, where we would be making our first dive and then soon realized that Morgan and I forget things. After returning to the Airbnb and getting back on the road we made our way down to Key Largo. We arrived at Quiescence Dive Shop and realized that it was too rough to go off shore that morning and that it might be better that afternoon. We then changed our plans to dive offshore that afternoon. Since we had time to spare we went to the Coral Restoration Foundation information center and learned all about what they do in Coral Restoration and they learned about what we do in Coral Restoration!
After spending an hour at the information center. We went to the History of Diving Museum and did a scavenger hunt race while we went through the museum. After that we went to a huge dive shop called Divers Direct and bought some gear. By then it was time to go diving.
We had a great ride out through a canal, some mangroves, and then out into the ocean!
We worked on our coral watch slates on the first dive and saw a huge Elkhorn coral. Then we did fish surveys on the second dive and saw a Caribbean Reef Shark and a Nurse Shark. We also had a great boat captain, Captain Steve. We then finished the day with Key Lime ice cream at a local ice cream shop!
Great blog Adler! Keep it up!