Using my left hand to pull on the hose attached to my BCD I began my dive decent. It didn’t take long to realize this must be what superman feels like as I was suspended in the middle of the water column giving the illusion that I was flying. It was surreal. Needless to say diving in Jamaica, I have experienced the best dives yet. Not only have I advanced my skills as a snorkeler and a diver, I have also gotten the privilege to experience the common flora and fauna on the reef, as well as the rarely spotted species. 

On the alternate side of the spectrum, I have also pinned some things that I can improve on. For instance, photographing fish is much like trying to catch a chicken. Not that I have tried to catch a rogue chicken but, judging by the stories I have heard, it is extremely difficult. Each species poses a different challenge, and of course it isn’t just the fish that become a problem. For instance sea feathers disappear, their long hair like appendages shrinking into their hole. Most other tropical fish are quite skittish as most fish are, however the damsel fish pose quite a different difficulty, though comical at the least. Being extremely territorial fish, they are certainly not afraid to show me whose boss. Upset and feeling quit macho, the fish darted out of its home to come towards me, despite my size and ability to harm it. Like an angry chihuahua, the fish darted back and forth, advancing and retreating, trying to intimidate me away from his or her algae farm. Naturally all I wanted was a photograph, and this poor little fish’'s frantic panic of territoriality wasn’'t helping either of us achieve our goal. Needless to say, all of the photos I took were of a fish blur rather than a coherent picture to later id the fish with. Among other creatures we found were a fairly young [ed: sea turtle identity is being withheld until my niece and nephew come up with the correct ID for their Uncle — check the comments section in 3 days for the identity OR try to key it out yourself] sea turtle undisturbed by our cameras during his or her peaceful somber, and a reef octopus that stuck around for a few minutes to see what we were up to. It then followed by avoiding us just for safe measure by retreating beneath a coral.

Sunrise

Mystery Turtle (check comments section in 3 days for ID] [ed: photo taken by GraceAnne's favorite class instructor.]

Octopus [ed: photo also taken by my favorite Professor ever!]

-GraceAnne