On day 3, the winds were much more conducive to leave the safety of our bay, so we maneuvered the boat out to the part of the island with the great diving and mangrove forests.  We decided to spend the morning exploring the mangrove forests that grew in the interior of the island, then do our next dive.  With dad on the tender, and Chris & I sharing a seadoo, we set off for the inlet.

The mangrove trees.

As we were driving along, we came across an area that was swarming with a turtle colony and decided to do some snorkeling to explore.

Hawksbill

Eretmochelys imbriocota

Once we got back to the boat, the crew picked up all the toys and then set off to drop us off for our next drift dive.  This wall dive would take us down to 150’ over a sheer cliff face.

Cheryl & Dane.

Dane.

Bluestriped Grunt

Haemulon sciurus

Grunt Family

Yellowtail Snapper

Ocyurus chrysurus

Snapper Family

Blue Tang

Acanthurus coeruleus

Butterflyfish Family

Chris.

French Angelfish

Pomacanthus paru

Angelfish Family

Reef Shark

Carcharhinus perezii

Shark Family

Spotlight Parrotfish

Sparisoma viride

Parrotfish Family

Queen Angelfish

Holacanthus ciliaris

Angelfish Family

Friendly local porpoise coming to check us out.

Ocean Triggerfish

Canthidermis sufflamen

Triggerfish Family

After we got back in the boat and had a huge lunch, Chris & I quickly passed out for the 3 hour crossing that would take us to San Salvador.  We had to work up the energy before our 7:30 PM evening dive.  It would be our first night dive ever and while we were excited, we were also a little bit nervous. 

Dive 4:

This dive would be a wall dive maxing out at about 130’ over a sheer cliff.  Visibility would be close to zero so we had special lights to help us see.  We were told to watch out for the parrot fish which had a tendency to fall asleep at night and sink to the bottom.  If you were quiet enough you could sneak up on them and scare your friends…

The first sleeping parrotfish.

Caribbean Spiny Lobster

Panulirus argus

Spiny Lobster Family

Foureye Butterflyfish

Chaetodon capistratus

Butterflyfish Family

Longspine Squirrelfish

Holocentrus rufus

Squirrelfish Family

The sleeping parrotfish were littered across the ocean floor.  Everywhere we turned there were more of them to be found.

The best part after the dive was to get out in the freezing cold air on the back of the boat and to jump immediately into the hot Jacuzzi to warm up.  It felt so amazing to be all warm and talk about all the exciting things we saw.  And then once we got out, we had another amazing feast waiting for us.

After dinner as we were getting ready to watch a movie, we noticed that there were hundreds of these little small jellyfish off the transom of the boat.  They were only about 1-2” long, however when we looked them up in the fish logs, there were extremely toxic and required immediate medical attention.  Good thing this swarm wasn’t around when we were getting out of the water…

Sea Wasp

Carybdea alata

Jellyfish Family