[HighTide]

This past November I went down to the British Virgin Islands with friends of mine. We started off in Tartola, rented a 44' Catamaran, and then we proceeded to island hop the surrounding British Virgin Islands. One of the stops was lovely I was learning how to snorkel, had just done my first semi-serious free dive to pick up what I thought was a conch- and it ended up being a large hermit crab... I had come face to face with a baracuda, which I had never done in the water, and the trip was amazing to me so far. We were getting our snorkeling gear on, and a friend who was already in the water- started yelling that there was a shark. I had always joked with my friends my whole life, that if someone started shouting shark, while everyone else was running away, I would run in. Funny thing is, with this group of friends, that's what we'd all do. We knew she wasn't getting attacked, and it ended up being a nurse shark who was just chilling out about 20-25 feet below, but it was great to find out for a fact that it wasn't something I just said. When someone shouted shark, I did, in fact, go towards it. That entire trip was amazing. Also got the chance to see a giant ray with 2 little ones. Just awe inspiring.