Day 4 started off with probably the most epic beginning out of the whole trip. Again, the three Queen's ladies decided to get up for another early morning snorkel, but this time our destination was Shark Alley to catch some sharks in action. We headed down to that portion of the island, and quickly realized that although the tide was in, it was rapidly moving outwards which made it much more dangerous for us as snorkelers. Before heading into the alley from the end of it (and we decided to swim towards the mouth, since that was the direction the current was heading in), we had a quick debrief about how we were going to approach this. We decided to snorkel single file, along the wall closest to the ocean, leaving a wide berth for the sharks on our left-hand side. What we didn't anticipate was the strength of the water going out to sea, bashing us up against the rocks on our right! It didn't really matter though, as we felt safer against the rocks than being bashed up against the sharks!!
We entered the water and started swimming, but didn't see anything right away. I was the chosen "leader", and in first position....let me tell you, it is scary as when you see an entire pool of large fish swimming MADLY towards you - and away from something behind it! It wasn't long before this happened and sharks were close behind. I literally was about 2 feet from 8 reef sharks at one point. It was crazy as. I think I've explained how this works, but basically, the sharks circle at the mouth of the alley, then one by one swim down the center to break apart the pools of fish and disorientate them. They then swim back up one of the sides of the rocks and repeat the process. While in the alley, we were flanked by a couple sharks, but it was at the mouth that things really began to heat up. Here, there were 6 sharks in a circle, and the tides changed a bit at the mouth, which meant unless we put a lot of effort into swimming against the current, we would end up in the center of the shark circle. This isn't a bit thing necessarily, as long as you get out quickly, since the longer time you spend disrupting the process, the madder the sharks get. We swam up the alley and back, then decided to continue down the coast towards Ray Bay, since we didn't want to end up as brekkie for the reef sharks!
Ray Bay was another spectacular site - multiple schools of sting rays would rise up from the floor as we swam past, and put on this amazing display of gliding through the water. In all, we probably saw about 40 different rays in about 3 schools. After snorkeling the equivalent of half the island, we got out on the beach and walked back to the research site for breakfast.
Today's activities basically were presentation preparation, with another organized boat snorkel in between data analysis and collection. Luckily, our group had basically finished the presentation, so we were able to spend more time out snorkeling on our own than multiple other groups. The destination for the boat snorkel today was the Canyons - an area of reef off the island where the reef beds have deteriorated in certain places and the current has carved canyons into them. Here, I saw the most spectacular display of coral reef fish yet. All beautiful colors, patterns.....it was insane. I was able to capture a few photos on my camera, but it really doesn't do them justice.
Apart from a day of snorkeling, preparation, eating and relaxing on the beach (another sunny day meant my burn only got worse, despite 60SPF), we had nothing pressing to do. The evening was devoted to presentations, as well as a competition beteween the presentations. Unlike the last trip, we all knew about the competition, so the presentations were much more intricate than last time. We didn't think we did all that well on our own, but ended up coming in second place by only a fraction of a margin. Damn. It would have been cool to place first both times.....
After the presentations ended, we all decided to drink some beverages out on the jetty, under the stars. It was our final night, with nothing to do the next day except pack up, so it was a late night out laughing and sharing stories amongst new friends. After finishing some wine with a few mates, I just laid on my back and watched the stars, before heading in for a sleep. I was one of the first ones in around 1am, but I had made up my mind that I was not going to pass up a last opportunity to snorkel again once more in the early morning. Luckily, Alexa wanted to go again, so she headed back to our dorms with me.
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