Location: Luban Bajo.,
Today, Ava and I started our morning at 1:30 a.m. on anchor watch. The whole hour and a half we were in the cockpit, we heard bats screeching on the island nearby as well as something in the water routinely coming up for air. Later on in the morning, I woke everyone else up to eat breakfast. Half of the group got their tanks and gear prepared to go diving right after eating and cleaning up. Once they were done, the first group left on both of the dinghies to the dive location nearby. When they got back sooner than expected, we found out that Ben and Kasey both ran out of air mid-dive, so their group had to cut the dive short. Once they got back, the second group left for the same spot and had a more successful dive. We saw two turtles, some starfish, and a bunch of the fish that we have been learning about in marine bio class.
After everyone was done diving for the day, we had lunch, and some of us worked on drawing the fish species we had seen in our fish ID books. We then went snorkeling nearby, where Vela was anchored, to look for “nothing in particular,” which was written in the plans for the day. We eventually found out that meant we were going to a spot where manta rays are known to be at certain times, despite our best efforts to find them, which consisted of following groups of tourists and different boats that seemed like they had seen some. We unfortunately did not find any. But we still had fun swimming and following around different groups who we thought had spotted some. Once we got back, everyone had free time to do homework and get ready for dinner, except Audrey, who was our head chef, and her sous chefs, Allie and Nico. While we ate dinner, we were underway to Laubaun Bajo, where we were anchored for the night. After everyone finishes their jobs and cleans up, we have our marine biology class with Stef to wrap up the night.
Hi Mom and Dad :), also Jake’s mom (he told me to say hi)