Hello everyone! This is post number 2 from Roatan, Honduras and our first day of actual research diving! It was a very eventful day with two dives, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. We had a nice little break at a key that was farther down the island and gazing into the clear blue water was torture, let me tell you! (sarcasm) The first dive site was called Mandys Eel Garden and it gets its name from its high abundance of eels living in the sand. I never saw an eel but I didnt plan on getting that close to the ocean floor either! The second site is named Butchers Bank and I guess it doesnt live up to its name because everyone came back alive. :) The initial dive was pretty rough, as we were all trying to manipulate our gear to collect data and samples. I was slightly disappointed at Eel Garden because C.A.S.E did not like to expand up to its max of 10 feet... it started to buckle and was irritating trying to adjust it under the ocean... but after I had a chance to play with it a bit, I realized what could be done to fix it and ways we could get around the buckling so by the time the second dive came up, data collection went a lot smoother. I was mostly happy because I was able to manipulate the apparatus and get a pretty good reading so I am aiming for a positive trip going forward! Other than being bug bitten and sunburned even with the use of sunscreen and bug spray, it has been a good day. My professor and I have a bet going during this trip to see who will come out with the most bug bites as we were tied last year. So far I am winning with a whopping total of 53 NO SEE EM bites just from today. They are almost worse than the mosquitoes so it is a good thing I have my anti-malarials on board! I am happy for today, it went smoothly and I think everyone did well for their first data collections. Tomorrow is a new day and it will only get better from here, especially since we get to snorkel with dolphins tomorrow! I hope they are as playful as last year, because I wouldnt mind having the chance to play fetch with them again with blades of sea grass! Anyways, I hope everyone has had a good Monday and I will post again tomorrow. Love everyone and thanks again for all of the support! - Kara
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 05:36:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015