Laurel had agreed to get up at 3am to check if the dingy needed air. The alarm went off, I nudged her a couple of times but she responded by mumbling something to the tune of be there in a minute (which usually means, I have no relocation of agreeing to this 3am nonsense so I'm staying in bed). I went above deck and found Marion doing some reading at the helm. I figured there was no way Laurel was ever going to make it up so I asked Marion to give me a hand. The dingy was actually pretty low and there was a good couple of inches of water inside. Fortunately someone had left a plastic cup in it so after a few minutes with most of the water out and enough air in there, I went back to sleep.

I was up again around 7:30 and worked on the trip log for a bit. The fish crew was also up early and went on another run on the dingy. After breakfast we started our move towards Frozen-Ambler, a pair of privately owned islands north of Whale. First we made a stop for a 40-50 ft. coral dive. Linda wanted to dive this time, so we got our gear ready. I decided to use what was left of Trav's tank (~2400 psi from the trip's first dive) and we agreed to let me jump in last in case either of them ran into any problems.

The sea was a bit choppy so we agreed to meet at the bottom by the anchor line. I caught up with Laurel by the bow where she was having problems with water getting in her mask because of the rough waters. I grabbed her mask, tightened the strap, and tried to help her relax and feel comfortable. She started to feel better and we agreed to continue the dive. We met Linda at the bottom and they signaled for me to lead. There were lots of fish, coral, and plant life which made it a great dive thanks to the wonderful visibility. Once again we saw Joe riding around on his sea scooter. There were plenty of paths formed in the coral. After some 25 minutes and with about 800 psi, I left the two of them and started heading back to the anchor line. I ascended to 15 ft. for my 3-minute stop and was surprised by a friendly school of yellowtail which kept circling around me. Linda and Laurel surfaced about 10 minutes later.

After the dive we continued on towards Frozen-Ambler. On the way, Greg, Luke, and John had their lines in the water and caught two barracudas which were thrown back in once we got pictures of them.

We anchored on the west side of Ambler. There was a house by the point and there seemed to be a small stream going into the island in front of us. There was also a bridge connecting the land divided by the stream. Two dogs came up to the shore and barked loud enough to make sure we understood that we were not welcomed. A few of the group jumped in the water with their snorkels and swam around exploring the bottom. Luke borrowed one of our pool rafts and jumped in to relax while hanging on to the orange life line.

Wayne offered to take people around the island on the dingy and many took him up on it. Laurel and I rode last. Wayne first took us by the bridge to show us how a metal screen had been put up to prevent anyone (or anything) from going through. He then took us around the north side where we could see Frozen Cay which is actually very close to Ambler. On Frozen we also saw a house by the south point along with a small port on the west side. As we returned to the boat, both Ryans were in the water with their snorkels and were rather close to the shore. The dogs - this time there was a third - were there guarding their territory.

We hung out by Ambler for about an hour while we had lunch and relaxed before moving on to Holmes. Joe sailed in between a bunch of smaller islands and at one point took us through a passage maybe 100 ft. wide which we had to take with the boat sideways by letting the current push us through. The reasoning behind this is that a ship's throttle is much more responsive than the steering making it easier for the captain to avoid shallow areas on both sides by using forward and reverse.

There seemed to be a lot of sailboats in this area. When we finally arrived at Holmes there was one anchored there which Wayne recognized as the Dolphin - a wooden boat that used to be owned by Shark Fleet and hence used to be a Shark as well. Over the years, Shark Fleet has owned some fifteen boats, two of which they still have. They were even telling us a story about how one of them, the Shark 2, was rented out and disappeared while out at sea.

After anchoring we jumped in and gathered at the shore for another group snapshot. We then followed a small trail leading us into the island. On the way someone pointed out a huge land crab about a foot wide. We walked maybe a quarter of a mile where the trail ended on a rock that looked down into a large sinkhole. The drop was maybe 15 - 20 ft. and it was the trip's traditional cliff-diving spot.

Wayne and I positioned ourselves at opposite sides to grab snapshots of people as they jumped in. Joe went first, and demonstrated the jump by doing a back flip. With the exception of Laurel who is terrified of heights, everyone else followed including myself.

The water felt very salty and therefore very dense. I hopped out, grabbed the camera and took more snapshots from below as there was a wide opening beneath where everyone was jumping from. Once everyone was in, I grabbed my snorkel and jumped back in. It was so dark it made it impossible to see anything below maybe 10 ft. and therefore made it look very gloomy. We hung out for a good half hour and then decided to head back to the shore. On the way back Laurel and I spotted the crab again and took a picture of it.

As we came back to the shore we saw John and Luke use the force to board the boat by climbing up the anchor line. Crazy kids. Tina, Ryan D., and I decided to snorkel over to the point which was maybe about two to three hundred yards away. As we started our swim, we realized we were being followed by a barracuda about 30 ft. out. I was the first to see it and pointed it to both of them. Since we were still in shallow water, we stopped and wondered about its intentions for a minute. As we stood there, we could see it floating still just staring at us. We agreed to move on for a bit while keeping an eye on it.

It followed.

We stopped again and wondered about it some more. We checked and it had stopped as well and was staring at us just like before. I remembered someone mentioning that they are attracted to shiny objects and then realized my G-Shock has a very reflective screen at certain angles. With that I flipped it around so the screen was pointed towards my body. We swam a bit further.

It followed.

We started to get a little freaked out about the whole thing so we stopped, turned around and headed towards Wayne and a couple others who were still by the shore with the dingy. The barracuda was in between us and the boat, so there was no way in hell we were swimming out.

It followed.

It wasn't until we got to very shallow water that I lost sight of it. I looked for it for a couple of minutes and then rode back with Wayne.

That night we sailed on and stopped for the night on the way to Ambergais (or Money, as some call it). It was also Margaret's birthday, so we celebrated by having a brief talent show for her which included Ryan P. and Danielle reading a poem they wrote, and Greg's Amazing Magic Act ®. We also took the opportunity to formally introduce ourselves which we hadn't really done so far. After chatting for a while and sharing a few laughs we called it a night.