Written by Jack O., Marine Bio Mate
After a joyous night at Sidney’s, the kids were more than willing to sleep in. However, with the program coming to an end, we had important things to do. We enjoyed a quick breakfast of cereal and bagels before motoring beyond Soaper’s Hole and then sailing tack-to-tack to our next destination: Little Harbour on Peter Island. This location is especially loved by the staff, and we were excited to share that love with the kids. Some boats had to refill their water tanks, but eventually we all arrived at Little Harbour with full tanks and full bellies after a delicious lunch of macaroni and cheese. With the fabulous skipper Jake at the helm, we made good time and were ready for our afternoon activities.
In the afternoon, there was a plethora of activities for the kids to participate in. Our newly qualified divers had the opportunity to complete two dives: one during the day and another later that night, allowing them to see the difference in biodiversity at varying light levels. Meanwhile, those completing their ASA certifications took their final exams. Many were nervous, but they had all worked hard and earned the opportunity to become certified. No one exemplified this better than James, who had been practicing diligently with his boatmates. We were all elated when he passed with flying colors.
But while they were having a battle of witts, the remaining campers were expanding their witts with an interesting lesson on a well loved subject: turtles! Jack hooked them in with some background information on their anatomy to help them appreciate an eventual spotting before Chloe gave them a good understanding of turtle life history and the different species they might see during a snorkel. And then we snorkelled! We snorkelled across from boat to boat until we reached the pinnacle of the bay. Here was a small seagrass meadow where sea turtles were known to frequent. What we could not expect was that we didn’t see one… we saw 3 turtles of varying ages swimming across the shore line. The campers were so elated that numerous began diving with their go pros to make a lasting memory of this lovely moment.
After each person had made a memory of swimming with sea turtles we all returned to our boats where each boat had their own splashy swim time before ocean showers and dinner. Tonight we had to be quick so we ate our tacos and cleaned up fast as we had one more activity to partake in: a night snorkel. Using dive lights we scanned the seafloor and the rocky shoreline to see what creatures came out under the cover of night.
At first our spot seemed to be flawed as we were not seeing anything other than the usual tarpin that like to reside under our boat and eat the food cleaned from our dirty plates. We were able to enjoy the abundance of bioluminescent algae that was glowing around us when we moved but it seemed like our luck was low. Luckily the rocky shore was a bounty of marine life. Squirrel fish went in and out of rocky crevices. Crabs scurried in and out of view. We were even so fortunate to see a small reef octopus pulsating blue and green before our eyes.
Thinking we were satisfied we began to head in, where we saw a turtle sitting on the seafloor asleep. We accidentally awoke it with our torches and so went away as an apology, and in doing so discovered a stingray in that direction shooting across the seafloor. Our own Izzy was lucky enough on the paddleboard to even see a pod of 3 dolphins. Truly it was a magical night snorkel and at peace with nature with had a brief boat meeting before going to sleep.
