Tobago Expedition: Day 16

It turns out we made a wise decision to prolong the party last night. Had we come home early, we would have been sorely disappointed that we traded drunken revelry for a dive that isn’t going to happen. The weather hasn’t calmed down at all, and the waves are still raging. The boat we had rented for today was beached during the night and needs to be checked over before being returned back to the sea. She didn’t suffer the same fate as our beloved Cheeky as she didn’t flip, but this morning’s dive would have been called off.
We have two volunteers leaving today, and one of them wrangled some pancake batter and, love of my life, bacon. One perk of being a long term volunteer is a free weekend. She had hers last weekend, taking the opportunity to procure goodies for us all. She got up early to start cooking and the rest of us woke up to the hedonistic small of sizzling bacon. We were all a bit squishy while we ate a proper hangover breakfast of bacon, pancakes and gallons of black coffee.
Feeling human again, we went into our routine of studying, napping and wishing there was enough beach to tan on. In the meantime, the boat was checked out and re-launched, ready for an afternoon dive.
Once again back in Speyside, we geared up and climbed aboard. There was an attempt at diving Goat Island, but the waves were too active. Had we dropped in, there was a good chance we’d be thrown into the rocks. We settled for a site called Bookends instead, and it turned out to be one of the best dives of my life. Early into the dive, we were treated to a very rare sight- a ten foot long leatherback turtle cruised past. A short time later, we came upon barracuda, tarpons (which one of the other divers confused for sharks- she won the “stupid things said and done” contest tonight), a plethora of black durgon, a huge fireworm, and an octopus. Then a hawksbill turtle swam by. It was one of the most critter-riddled dives I’ve done, and was absolutely amazing.
Arriving back at the jetty, we started getting ready for the beach clean up project. Continuing with the community outreach program, our project science officer had arranged for a group of schoolchildren to meet us, and we would walk them along the beach gathering all the trash we could find. Most of the volunteers would walk with the children while a few more advanced divers would play underwater garbage collectors. I was one of the lucky few selected for the underwater clean up, but when it came down to it the bay was too murky. You couldn’t even see your own hands, so the dive was deemed too dangerous for anyone other than staff. Disappointed, I stripped off my wetsuit and joined the trash pick up along the beach. The kids were eager and into the challenge, finding every bit of trash along the waterline. From one end of town to the other, we collected an estimated 25 pounds of garbage. And I didn’t think the beach was all that bad to begin with.
After eliciting promises that the children would come to Saturday Fun Day, we headed home. Between the great dive and the good deed, I’m exhausted and looking forward to going to bed early.