After a year long of planning…I got to take my trip of a lifetime!!! I did a live-aboard dive vacation in the Galapagos Islands. Some of my friends from Hawaii and I went on the Peter Hughes Sky Dancer boat for a week of diving and land excursions. I had some amazing experiences…walked with huge tortoises, hung out with iquanas, snorkeled with sea lions and penguins, went diving with 5 species of sharks (white-tip reef sharks, silky sharks, Galapagos Sharks, Hammerheads, and a Whale Shark….and the best part of my trip are my wild dolphin encounters. The water temp there was 85 degrees so I went in my swimsuit and rash guard…it was awesome! I got photos of the juvenile female whale shark, I named her Isabella, and sent them to www.whaleshark.org for research! I was truly blessed to meet wild dolphins upclose and personal…Rosita the female with her baby Pepe and the male dolphin Edwin all let me be apart of their day! I have some amazing video of my adventures so stay tune for my video release…but until then enjoy my photos!
I enjoyed my 29th Birthday on vacation…and this really was the best bday present EVER!!! If you are a diver you MUST go on this trip!
This November, I got an amazing opportunity to go sailing in the BVIs (British Virgin Islands) and diving too! I packed up my dive gear and Matt and away we went. We were traveling with my friends Eamon, Judi, Katie and Mark (the dingy captain). It was great to learn about sailing…since all my boating experience is under motor. We were on a 47 ft catamaran with 4 staterooms, kitchen, and large area to lounge. I got my tan on and got lots of Nikole and Matt time 
As for the diving…we did some exciting dives. We dove all over…some sites we dove were full of beautiful coral, but other sites, because of the bleaching event that occured about 6 yrs ago, were trying to re-build its coral life.I think I saw enough yellow-headed jawfish and Flamingo tongue snails while diving…so if I didn’t get a good photo well I guess I never will of those two creatures!
My most interesting dive on this trip was the wreck of the Rhone. She sunk in 1867 off of Salt Island…what is interesting about Salt Island is generations of this one family lived on Salt Island and were salt collectors…there is a part of the island that pools the ocean water and will dry up collecting the sea salt. The family was able to live on the island as long as they sent a pound of sea salt to the Queen of England each year…sadly the last man to live on the island died in 2004.
Lets get back to this famous wreck…the Rhone is a Royal Mail Ship about 310 ft long. She got caught in a hurricane while she was anchored and broke free to hit the island and break into 2 pieces. The one piece lies in about 90 ft of water and the other is much shallower (40 ft)…so this wreck site is popular because you can get two great wreck dives on it. It is also popular because the Rhone stars in the 1977 movie “The Deep”. So in the movie, the actress Jacqueline Bissett goes diving in a white t-shirt and bikini bottoms only so I decided I should try this too…and re-create the movie…so stay tune for Nikole’s version of “The Deep”.
For more information about the Rhone check out this site http://www.saildivebvi.com/rhone.php
Right now I only have photos of the trip but soon I will create the dive videos…when I find some time!
So my Hawaiian Sista Erin came to visit me and we did lots of diving and hanging out. We even made it to the Sawgrass Recreational Park for an air boat ride and some alligator wrestling. Check out her photos from the trip!
