salty

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Today’s first dive was a wall dive named John’s Spot. We sighted a large grouper and a spotted eagle ray swimming along the reef wall around 110ft. The highlight at this site were the large, colorful filefish. The second dive was at Too Tall Too Small, known for large overhangs on the reef wall. We came upon a juvenile hawksbill turtle chillin on the reef wall so we decided to try and ambush it. I came around the front and saw what I thought was a good opportunity to chance a capture so I grabbed it with both hands and I had it for about five seconds before the thing realized what was going on, at which point it started flailing wildly and we both collided with the reef overhead. As debris rained down on my head the turtle wrestled itself free of my grip and swam off. We pursued it for 5 minutes or so before giving up. Moral of the story: turtles are deceivingly strong! After that enlightening experience I came to the definite conclusion that capturing a turtle by hand, even a subadult, is not going to be easy. Noel is probably going to look into net of some type.

The afternoon dive at Parrot Tree Point wasn’t terribly spectacular, just a nice size grouper.
At night we sat down with a few of the salty sea captains that are currently docking their boats here at Fantasy Island when they aren’t sailing around the Caribbean. These folks are real characters and have no shortage of sea stories, especially when under the influence. Here is one I heard tonight: “One time I thought I was gonna die. I had lost steering in a storm and was rolling broadside to the waves. I just sat there staring at the ice maker, which I knew wasn’t secured terribly well. It was directly in line with my head so I was just waiting for it to fly across the cabin and bash my head in. So I proceeded to send an email to my family and best friend informing them of my imminent demise and let them know where all the money was hidden on the boat since the vessel would probably survive longer than I. I just thought of this today because I had to go back and find that email since I could no longer remember where those hiding places were.”

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