Update

I'm sorry...I'm way behind on my personal journal. But I'm trying to catch up! Here's a little more...

Thursday was our first boat trip to go snorkeling off the island. The water clarity was perfect; I could see straight down 15ft to the bottom! It was gorgeous. The coral was so much more interesting than it was right off the island, and the fish were way bigger! We saw several sea turtles and a HUGE 8ft. Manta Ray! The adventure was really cool, until…CELP! Little jelly-like ciphonophores with plenty of stinging cells filled the water around us. Though their sting wasn’t awful, it was definitely unpleasant, and it made me end my snorkeling adventure early. Good thing, though, because when I hopped back into the dingy, I got to see dolphins playing in the wild! They were so cool! They jumped right out, just like they do in the movies! It was exciting :-) The rest of the day was just more fishy research.

Friday was more research, in preparation for our presentations the next day. We took another boat trip for snorkeling, just in another place of the ocean. We saw some more cool fish, and let the current just float us back towards the island. Later, while we were ashore, I was getting ready to catch som sun when I heard someone yell “WHALES!” I thought this to be kind of strange, because the whale migration had already passed by Heron Island, and we had missed it. But sure enough, as I made my way to the beach, I could see a Humpback whale breeching! (Breeching is when they come out of the water). We watched them (there were 3, probably young males looking for mates) swim all the way through the channel. Not only did they breech a couple more times, but we also got to see the characteristic tail-slap and pectoral fin slap as well! So awesome!

That night, Glen organized a night snorkel for us, where we’d swim all the way off shore to the wrecked boat that greeted guests to the island...in the dark. Everyone was extremely nervous, but I was a little more so than others. Armed with snorkeling gear as well as glow sticks and “torches” (torch=flashlight), we headed out to the beach. I was really REALLY scared, but I remembered my Australian mottos and decided to have a go! We swam out towards the wreck, and immediately were greeted by huge sleeping sea turtles! They were so cool. There were a couple of Loggerheads, and several Greens. As we got further from the shore, I got more and more nervous. Everyone seemed to be kicking so quickly, they were pulling away from me! I tried to kick & kick to keep up, but it just wasn’t working. I couldn’t breathe out of my snorkel, and I felt myself start to hyperventilate. I looked around me. “Guys, will someone go slower with me? I can’t keep up…it’s hard to breathe.” Everyone ignored me, too enthralled in the sea floor. I could feel myself freaking out. I was either going to drown, or get left behind, I thought to myself. I started yelling for people to slow down, hoping Glen would here my begging and wait for me to catch up. He did, and he grabbed my hand and calmed me down (I was crying like a baby at this point :-( ) and stayed with me for the rest of the snorkel. I felt like such a 5-year-old then, being brought in front of the class and laughed at for being scared, but I was really glad that Glen stayed with me, or else I would’ve been much worse off. The rest of the group had made it ashore, but Glen and I were slowly making our way back in, as calmly as possible. I saw a flash in front of me. It was something…BIG. “What was that?!” I yelled, fear in my voice. “Oh, just a shark. No big deal. Just keep swimming,” Glen told me nonchalantly. “A SHARK?!” A huge, 6 ft. black tip reef shark swam by us, only 10 ft. ahead! I was really hoping it would just leave, but nope, it swam by us again. Even though I was terrified at the moment, I look back now and think it’s really cool that I’m the only one in the group that was so close to the shark. It was actually the biggest shark anyone saw during our stay on Heron Island! So, I finished the terrifying night snorkel, saw some cool stuff, and decided that night snorkeling will never be an aspect of my career.