Saturday July 3rd

Today is Saturday June 3rd, we woke up and went to Amoray Diving Resort. We had four really great dives today. The first site was called elbow reef where I saw a green sea turtle. The second dive spot was called South South ledges. I saw a really big spiny lobster and some comb jellies. The third dive site was called Banana Patch, I saw a spotted eagle ray, a green moray eel, and a juvenile queen angelfish which was super pretty! The fourth dive site was called Horseshoe reef. I saw a really big silvery fish called a permit. The reefs today were really colorful and vibrant, it was really great for the snorkelers because the reefs were close to the surface so we could see things up close. After diving we came back to the resort and had some delicious burgers, we then got our custom class t-shirts from Gary which are beautiful and we took a class picture. Afterwards we went to an ice cream shop and had some delicious ice cream and key lime pie!

-Gillian

Friday July 2nd

On July 2nd we woke up and headed over to Silent World. We had 4 amazing dives today. Our first and second dive was located at City of Washington, Key Largo Florida. Our third dive was at North North Dry Rocks, Key Largo Florida and fourth was at North Dry Rocks, Key Largo Florida. The third and fourth dives were in reefs described as “spur and grooves” meaning they weave in an in and out formation. As a snorkeler, I saw lots of amazing species. Something I saw on my snorkel that was breathtaking was a groups of 7 spotted eagle rays swimming right underneath me! Others and I saw trumpetfish, barracudas, several species of parrotfish, queen angelfish, rock beauty, gray angelfish, lobsters, yellowtail damselfish, and much more. Overall, all four dives were a great experience and I can’t wait for the rest of the week to see many more species! We ended off our day coming back to the resort for dinner, then continuing to head over to REEF for a Fish Identification Class and to go over what we saw and input our data. It was a great and enjoyable day for all and I think we can all agree we are enthusiastic to see many more species!

-Kaylee

Thursday July 1st

Today we woke up early and went to the Sailfish Diving shop to get on our boat for the day. We got our gear set up and we were off to Benwood wreck. We went out on the boat pretty far, and once we were in the water it was so nice and the water clarity was great. As a diver, I saw so many neat fish, all sizes and colors. Other than the diverse fish, we saw lobsters and other cool invertebrates. After our two dives, we came back to Sunset Cove and had time to add to our journals, and some free time which a lot of us spent at the beach. At 4:00 we went down the road to go to a REEF class, where we went deeper into fish identification in the Florida Keys. We had some delicious tacos when we got back, and finally, there was an amazing sunset to wrap up our day!

-Aleah