Today was the most exhausting but better yet exciting day of the trip so far. I woke up at 8am only to find myself throwing on my super exotic swimsuit. By 8:30am, our taxi driver Glen came by to take us to breakfast at the marina. For breakfast, I helped myself to some pineapple and then topped it off with some banana bread before getting on our boat ( Sea Monkey) for our first dive. Leaving Virgin Gorda, Jeff ( the BEST BVI staff member) took us on a 30 minute boat ride out to a body of water off of Salt Island. Our first excursion consists of a sunken ship in the 1800’s. Captain Wooley, the captain of the Rhone (the sunken ship) in 1866 set sail from Europe to the Caribbean. Reaching the Virgin islands in 1867, the Rhone got caught up in a hurricane and tried to escape it by avoiding land masses and heading out to open sea. Having bad luck, the Rhone hit the rocks in front of Salt Island. The steam engine meeting the cool ocean water created a violent explosion which sent the ship plummeting to the bottom. Although the story is sad and depressing, the dive was extraordinary! Descending in the water, Jeff took us through the bow of the ship seeing starfish coral, fire coral, and purple tube sponges; however, the darkness within the ship left me skeptical because I couldn’t see much without a flashlight. As I maneuvered my way through the ship I saw a couple of cabinets, cargo, and cannons. As for fish, I saw schools of squirrelfish, a trumpetfish, dog snappers, and some groupers. As we were ascending, Jeff pointed out a BARRACUDA! I was so scared and then he even asked me to touch it! Yeah not gonna happen. After that dive, we all went over to cooper island to eat lunch which was some fish and chips. The general manager of Cooper Island gave us a brief tour of the island showing how “green” the island really is. He is a very conservative individual and is striving to be able to reuse all his products. He also gets his energy from his solar panels above. He has 90 solar panels and is striving to acquire 120 in the years to come. After lunch and the tour, we went snorkeling off the coast of Cooper island where Will Cormier and I saw an eagle stingray, a group of barracudas, and starfish. After the Sea Monkey was aboard, Jeff and Laura set sail for Virgin Gorda. It wasn’t until this trip back where I developed my amazing new hairstyle for the future ( I think Elvis would be proud). Once we arrived we ate on the pier with each other for dinner where I had a good old cheeseburger and some fries…delicious! Now it’s time to go to bed and relax. I don’t know if it’s just me but it seems as if the days keep getting better as the week goes on. I can’t wait for tomorrow!
Scuba diving the Rhone
sweet hair and my coconut
