Our First Day Of Scuba Diving - FRIDAY =)

Wow! Our first day diving was one heck of an adventure. We started our day off by waking up early to get a good breakfast in our stomach so that we had enough energy for the day. After we ate breakfast we loaded up all three of the busses and headed off to the dive shop, Undersea’s, to prepare and learn how to scuba dive in the ocean. JB, one of our scuba instructors handed our BCD's to us and we were one step further in going on our first day of scuba diving. We were told to go onto the boats and prepare our oxygen tanks and BCD’ and get ready to depart to the ocean. All of us from the tundra started to get a little warmer and start a nice tan! Everyone had to experience two dives on the first day in order to get certified. Our first dive was a success even though many people experienced seasickness in between our first dive and second dive. On our first dive we had to go underwater and practice buddy breathing, clearing your mask, and snorkel to regulator exchange. Because we have twenty-one students and three teachers the group was divided into four different groups on two different boats. For each dive we stayed under water for 45 minutes to an hour. During this time our instructor took us around the ocean to look at different plants and animals. For our first dive we were under water for about forty minutes. In one of the groups they saw a Caribbean reef shark that swam away from them but then circled back around the group and came so close it looked like you could touch it. My group saw many barracudas and tons of small fish. After this first dive was when every one started to get seasick. We had a 25-minute surface interval to recover from the first dive. Then we got back in for our second dive. On this dive we spent a lot of time looking at more fish and practicing the skills we learned back at the pool in Indiana. In the afternoon we went back to SeaCamp where our group leaders took us back to Looe Key for some snorkeling. Before we got into the water, we talked about coral but once again people got seasick so it was very hard to look down on the flat top boat where Ana and Angelie where drawing diagrams of the coral. The seasickness got much better after everyone got in the water. While my group was out in the ocean snorkeling, we saw two sea turtles. The other group saw a pod of dolphins. This was very exciting to get to see these unique animals. Something cool, but dangerous was spotted, a jellyfish. Everyone had to be very careful of these creatures because they could potentially harm you. All of us were excited to have a big meal after such a long day. But the day did not end yet. After dinner, we headed back to SeaCamp for the second time that day. We talked about different night animals and why certain animals hunt at certain times of days. Then we divided into groups and went out to the shore of SeaCamp with buckets and nets for a night wade. The group caught a lot of different animals including hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, blue crabs, and a conch. Overall, we had a really productive and busy day and we learned a lot.
Katie Collins