Turtle Hunt

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Today was a free day with nothing planned for any of us. We decided to go snorkeling around the island to check out the shallow reefs. Matt had done some snorkelling earlier but on a worse day. We first headed to lobster lookout which is a pretty good reef with a drop off. We snorkeled along the top of the dropoff for a while and eventually Matt got way ahead. We found out after about 10 minutes that actually James and I were way behind. The boat driver was waving at us to hurry it up and keep up as we were snorkeling in a group of around 8 people. We saw some cool fish and corals and I was taking underwater pics with the camera. Unfortunately I couldn't find any o the massive turtles that I wanted to photograph. We were seeing them all day everywhere but the one time you have a camera they disappear. After about 45 minutes we headed back to the boat. When we arrived Matt was still a bit away but head back as well. Apparently he was following a turtle. I grabbed my gear and jumped back in hoping to go to it by it was swimming away and into the current so I wouldn't catch it.

We ended up heading back for a break and some lunch. After lunch and a good rest we headed out on he boat again for some more snorkeling and hopefully some turtle pics. We went to "Paradise 2" for the snorkeling and I set out for the area best known for turtle passing. We were only snorkeling for about 5 minutes when we saw the first turtle but it was to far away. We continued to see turtles the entire time but I was never able to catch up. Finally I gave up on the turtles and Matt and I were playing around with the camera taking underwater shots of eahother and it just so happens that a massive turtle swims right behind him as he's trying to take a photo of me. He ended up getting a great photo of me pointing behind him at the turtle.

A this point I was not going to miss this guy. I grabbed the camera and Matt and I tore after it. I should have let him keep it because he was lining up a good shot and we fumbled around with it under water before beginning our persuit. I though he still hadn't seen it. We chased I. For a while and I got some good pics of it's rear end but couldn't catch it.

A couple minutes later one of the other snorkelers came over to lemans told me the turtle was still in the shallows we had stopped chasing it to soon. We ended up tracking it down and getting some good photos but my camera ended running out of batteries half way through.

Arts another hour of snorkelling we headed back for dinner and rest.

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