Day 13

Today was the big day, my first open water dive for scuba. This was was definitely an experience I will never forget. It was so amazing to see things most people will never see in their lifetime. After 2 dives I am definitely hooked and can't wait to get out there for more!

The Girls Pre-Dive #1

During our dives we saw tons of marine life. The ones I was able to identify were neon damsels, moorish idols, kleins butterfly fish, yellow moon wrasse, blue groper, clown fish, several species of morays, a green turtle, 3 different kinds of wobbegong, leopard sharks, a lobster, starry puffer, a batfish, and a HUGE stingray that had a wingspan of about 8 feet. If you would like to see what these look like you can hop on www.julianrocks.net they have a ton of pictures of the fish taken at our dive site identified for you. We saw so many more fish I just haven't been able to identify them yet, but as I find out what they are I will let you know. I bought a card to attach to my BCD as I dive with labeled pictures of the fish to I can spot them under water so this should help on future dives

The boat rides out to Julian Rocks (our dive site) was pretty fun but was a little choppy at times. The first boat ride several of us were feeling a little sea sick, after the first dive one of the guys in our group didn't think he would be able to go out for the 2nd dive so he went back to camp with the group doing pool skills. I am sure everyone is going to hate the scuba groups for the next few weeks as we talk about all the cool things we saw. Everything is absolutely stunning though so they can't blame us!

Our next 2 dives will be next Sunday then I will officially be a certified diver. I'm certain I will return to Julian Rocks for another dive before we leave but I have also decided to do a Live a Board on a ship for spring break that will allow me to go on 8 dives during the day and 2 night dives in 3 days on the Great Barrier Reef. This has been an experience of a lifetime and one that I will never forget!

Mom and dad, If I haven't said this enough thank you so much for this opportunity! The experiences I am having here are out of this world. I miss you and love you very much!

P.S. I heard there was snow in Indiana, don't feel too bad it's in the low 30's here too ;) *For those of you that didn't get that joke it's low 30's Celsius here so pretty hot!

My dive buddy Thomas before our open water dives