Omg am I sore! I hurt. Bad. Everywhere. Oh whale, more fun today!
Because I got the scuba and spa package, I only have 3 dives left, so instead of going on the morning dive I went to sunrise yoga. It was, um, interesting... it was like breathing and stretching and not really what I would consider yoga but more of a warm up for dance class. It was also really windy and the mat kept blowing everywhere and I probably won't be doing it again. I didn't want to stay for the whole thing but didn't have an excuse to leave and it would have been rude to just go.
I went to my room and jammed out to some music until our jacuzzi/roof photoshoot at 10, with a little breakfast in between. After the photoshoot, we were still in transition so I just chilled. After lunch I got word I could trade 2 of my spas for 6 dives. A little later in the afternoon I confirmed with cruise manager, Max, so now I have 2 spas and 12 dives (was 4 spa and 6 dives). What great news! Unfortunately, I didn't get this until the afternoon dive was already heading out, but I wanted to do the mermaid shoot anyway - we were finally headed underwater! Unfortunately, due to the storms of the past few days, the visibility was just not there so we couldn't do this. I was once again worried about the time as I needed to be back by 4:45 anyways for my sunset dive. So while disappointed, I was also a little relived because they decided we would go back to the boat and hopefully do underwater off the back of the boat instead. This way I would not be so pressed for time because I would already be back on the boat. Sadly, the visibility there was no better so we still could not shoot. After changing into normal bikinis and wowing Branden with how many bathing suits we all brought, Ariane, Karina, and I went swimming off the back platform while we waited for our dive time.
When we went down for the dive it was daytime, but when we came up it was a dark night. Underwater we observed life switching over from day to night. I saw a whitetip reef shark, eagle ray, turtle, nudibranch, and tons of banana fish. My tank was once again very low, and Katharina and Ariane fixed/lifted it underwater 3 times. It was also the reason I've been having buoyancy issues upon ascend and descend apparently. When I got back on the dive boat, the entire dive team staff looked at it until it was fixed. When I tried it out in the pool when I got it to make sure it worked, I did not put the strap on correctly and my father kept warning me it was falling and I was losing my tank but I was like "it's fine" but it was not fine and it's my fault, oopsie, but it's fixed now. Should work a lot better/easier. When we got back to the boat, people had already left for the beach braai. I was deciding if I wanted to wear what I had put on or change outfits when I heard footsteps of everyone running to the back of the boat, where the dingy that would take us to the island docks. Thinking the boat was leaving for the island, I decided I had to just wear what I was wearing and ran up. But the boat was not even back yet - instead there was a manta swimming off the boat light! Flip after flip, the young oceanic manta performed for us for hours. When the dingy got back, I took it to the beach BBQ and when we got back later that night the manta was still there, flipping for plankton.
The beach was done up so lovely for our beach party. Tea lights lit the way from the boat to the dinner tables, and the ambience was beautiful. A beach bar was set up as well as the BBQ buffet. The shrimpers were huge, mini lobsters for sure, but they were soggy and not very good. I had a mojito but had to get up several times to have them add more simple syrup to sweeten it up. After dinner there was no beach party, but we all boarded the dingy to go back to the boat for a party on deck.
However we still had our party crasher on the back of the boat! So instead of a deck party, we hopped in and took turns partying underwater with the manta (while keeping our distance buffer as best we could in the current). Eventually the photographers jumped in with us, and after a while I got out to change and join the no longer existent deck party. After some dancing, it was time for bed.
xoxo,
Tasha
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