The common themes of today: bliss and lucky charms.
From breakfast to dinner and everything in between, each activity was so satisfying and just an extreme joy to be a part of. The morning was peaceful, as finally nothing was in my room to wake me up! No roosters, no lizards, nothing! I woke up on my own terms and I couldn’t be happier that it was at 6:30……yet, that gave me time to finish reading the second book of the Hunger Games series. After getting out of bed, I got dressed and headed down to the taxi stop to get transported to the marina by our taxi driver Glenn. Again, we had a delicious breakfast, but it was made evermore blissful by the fact that it was literally all of my favorite breakfast foods: omelette, BACON, BANANA BREAD, assorted fruit, AND LUCKY CHARMS (a completely unexpected courtesy from my diving instructor Casey who I thank so much for getting them for me and my fellow shipmates). They were delicious! Bliss was definitely found in this part of the day, as well as lucky charms. After breakfast, we all assembled on Sea Dragon or as Sea Monkey and headed over to Long Bay for some coral transplanting. I have literally been waiting all week for this activity, and it sure was worth the wait. As a side note, Will draws Lucky from the Lucky Charms brand on the slate of Brian, who is Irish (see image below). Eventually, we arrived at the site. First, we were required to kind of scope out the area by snorkeling all around to see if there were solid fragments of coral to transplant to our site. Joe and I swam around for nearly 40 minutes going down to see if there was solid Elkhorn and Staghorn coral to use, and boy were there plenty of options. During the dive, we saw many of the same fish, and even more exotic organisms such as a trunk fish and a pufferfish. We eventually became exhausted doing this however. We swam nearly 300 yards from the boats, so the swim back was very taxing yet a good physical workout. After taking about a 20 minute break, we planned our harvest dive, where we would actually break the coral off from the it’s infected base about 5 cm up from the infected areas. Our goal was to get coral with about one or two points, but it didn’t really matter. Joe was in charge of the bag. Thus, as we broke off pieces of coral, he would collect them in the bag that we would set at the site before resurfacing once again. We didn’t plant the coral yet, just collect the fragments. Ours group total collected 11 pieces of Staghorn coral, while total, the group collected over 60 pieces! We resurfaced once again in order to eat lunch, which consisted of a Pb&J sandwich, carrots, grapes, and chips! Another blissfully delicious lunch provided by the BVI staff. Finally, each of the four groups dove out after lunch in order to go on a second dive to actually reattach the coral to the surrounding rocks or ground to allow for the coral to spawn new growth; however, before we left, I drenched myself in loads of sunscreen which didn’t seem to be helping my sensitive, pale corpse. Nevertheless, my rash guard helps to block the BCD from rubbing on my shoulders. Each member in our group has a task: Joe will use the epoxy gun; I will record data in a chart that is printed on underwater paper; Drew will complete all measurements that will be recorded; and, Will will keep track of the zip ties. Initially, we were having major trouble with the epoxy gun since it wasn’t mixing correctly, meaning that the coral wouldn’t be able to stick to the rocks. Thus, we decided to use the zip ties in order to attach the coral. This wins a way more effective method. After planting all the coral, we resurface and head back to the boat to say goodbye to the coral farm that our Jesuit group has created. I really can’t wait to see how much growth we will have over the next few years! Nevertheless, we finally get back at around 4:30 so we can change to head off to Mass. Mass is very blissful. Our priest is very enthusiastic about not only God, but also the BVI, and we all sang our own songs without any music, which was quite entertaining. We were all very talented. I finally got to show Doc my singing skills. After leaving, we headed back to the casas to get changed to go to Mad Dog’s where we had the most delicious lasagna to date. That was a very blissful dinner. We relaxed, went over today’s pictures, and watched a couple more of the topic videos from each group. Today has probably been the most fun I have had since I have been in the BVI! It was sad that today was our last dive, but I can’t wait to perform our service project tomorrow.
Brian truly is the Lucky Charm of the Sea Dragon
Will…being himself
Joe and Casey replanting the coral with the messy epoxy gun
Will, Drew, Casey, and Joe chilling in the top of the ocean
I call this “Sea snail on sea fan”
