We started out the day a little earlier today with Cedar Cabin waking up at 7:30. We put on our clothes and once again took the taxi driven by Glenn, but only after playing frisbee with everybody. Once again team Sea Monkey and Sea Dragon ate at the marina and left off of the harbor bright and early with Jeff and Laura. Two pineapples and twenty minutes later we arrived at Long Bay, Virgin Gorda. First off we all snorkeled in groups of four, mine being Tanner, Will, Joe, and Matt (we had 5). After a while of just blue water and sand we all started seeing many groups of beautiful coral and numerous varieties of marine life, among this being a Green Turtle and a Stingray. Soon we went harvesting in our scuba gear in order to gather some Staghorn and Elkhorn for the planting. Our group
Phantom Apache
got about fourteen pieces of coral which we planted with zip ties and an epoxy gun which was entrusted to me by the dive instructors. We were able to plant these broken pieces of Stag/Elkhorn onto rocks, living intact coral, and also dead coral as a skeleton. Next year the dive masters as well as perhaps other people coming on this trip will be able to measure these coral over time and be able to track how these coral grow and develop. These planted coral will help contribute to the ecosystem in the Long Bay area and will be Jesuit reef. It was an amazing day that we got to top off with a beautiful mass on top of the large hill on the island where you could see the whole island and all of the shops coming in to dock at the harbor. It was the most beautiful view on the island.
