What's better than waking up at 7 am to a breakfast of eggs and ham, or for most people, toast with peanut butter and jelly? A long, bumpy truck ride around the island to a rocky edge over hanging the ocean. While there, we visited the blowholes that, sadly, were not blowing very much; just a little here and there. We all hopped around the rocks trying not to get soaked by the crashing waves, while taking lots of pictures to share with family and friends. We all did our best not to trip and stumble on the sharp rocks, but it was unavoidable. Our beloved Dopey took the first fall of the day, cutting her foot and hand, but our wonderful instructor Kim patched her up in no time.
After that little adventure, we drove on to the Pigeon Creek mangroves. We all quickly stripped to our swim trunks, grabbed our masks, snorkels, fins, and dive slates and slid into the water, making sure to avoid the resident lion fish. We paddled around looking at all the fish when we got to a shelf where we saw many Nassau Groupers, Spiny Lobsters, Lionfish, Tangs, giant Urchins, a few barracuda, and tons of Sea Grass. Once the current pushed us down the creek quite away, we swam over to the shore to take a break where we all talked about what we saw. While wading in the water, we saw a small Sting Ray and Matt found an unidentified bone/skull thing of some animal which has yet to be named.
Once we were all ready to go we let the current push us over to the other shore where Matt parked the truck. Without thinking, we all jumped on the truck where we were surprised by burning feet. We all threw our clothes on so we could get to our little picnic. We were STARVING! We drove to the Grotto where we enjoyed a lunch the GRC kitchen staff packed for us.
After eating we all joked around a bit and some even went swimming in the warm, blue water. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the GRC for a fun lecture on ocean invertebrates followed by a trip to the repository for a lab. We saw crabs, lobster, squid, octopus, and a giant hermit crab outside of its shell. You parents are missing out... for sure. We all got antsy as it neared dinner time. 'Till the time rolled around, we all worked on our lab so we could enjoy some free time later. DINNER TIME! We all hurriedly ran to the cafeteria and loaded up our plates and began our evening rituals.
After dinner we went and did a little knowledge review to get us ready for the fundamentals of our first boat dive tomorrow. Finally it was over and free time had begun with a trip to the beloved snack bar. We all split off to do our own things, playing uno, cards, reading, and some sleeping. Soon off to bed to get us ready for a long day in the sun for tomorrow.
Giggles (Kelly) and the rest of the Broadreach adventurers
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