Tobago Expedition: Day 4
Still no word on my luggage.
Early morning again. Porridge again (not so bad with sugar). Chores before 6:30 again. I sense a routine setting in.
Our chores rotate on a daily basis and today I was scheduled to mop the house. Easy, though that early in the morning the smell of bleach really burns your nostrils.
Morning announcements informed us that today we would be diving Sisters, a group of small, rocky islands just outside of the bay. The long-term volunteers cheered- some of them have been here for weeks and this will be their first boat dive.
Wave one headed out and upon their return reported a manta ray sighting. Very cool. Sadly for wave two, by the time we got out of the bay the sea was too choppy to get to Sisters. We settled for Brothers, a similar rock formation closer to shore.
It was a nice dive, though nothing spectacular. Starting at eighteen meters, we worked our way up a series of shelves in between two peaks. The dive was a 'pointy', in which new volunteers were paired with experienced vols and, armed with slates, the experienced vols would point (thus, 'pointy') out fish and identify them for us newbies. It made fish identification so much easier. I still feel overwhelmed with the amount of information I'm expected to learn, but by the end of the pointy I felt like it might just be possible for me to grasp.
The rest of today has been fairly routine (there's that word again), and I find myself falling into it rather quickly. More carbs for lunch. More fish lectures (and even more fish to learn!). More studying.
Two good points this afternoon: the exam has been pushed back to Tuesday and tomorrow is a no-dive day, so tonight is party night. Coral Cay appears to believe in the "Work hard, play harder" motto. A couple of the long term volunteers are leaving this coming week, so we're being given the rare treat of an excursion- we're walking a hundred yards down the beach to a local restaurant, and then another fifty whole yards to the beach bar. Should be a great night.
A word about photos: My old camera has gone to a better place, so before the trip I was researching new cameras with underwater housing. However, the paperwork from Coral Cay turned me off the idea. Being that during the week we do science/survey dives, cameras aren't allowed. I guess we're supposed to focus on the survey. We can take cameras on the Saturday recreational dives, but as that amounts to a total of four dives for my entire trip, I had second thoughts. The cost of the dive gear severely ate into my budget- the camera would have stretched me too far. Oh yeah, and they've added a ridiculous clause in their release forms that any pictures taken during the expedition become the property of Coral Cay. The moral of this story is that I have no underwater photos to share with you, though as they would have mostly been dark and grainy with the poor visibility, you're really not missing much.
