Wow. What a couple of days. After a 5 hour flight to San Juan, a 30 minute flight to Beef Island, and a 20 minute boat ride to Virgin Gorda, we finally arrived. After getting our room assignments, Cabin Cedar with Dylan Dotter and Luke Curran, and meeting with Mr. Kirby and Doc, we sat down to a fine meal of Chef Boyarde and Fritos. It was the best Chef Boyarde I’ve ever had. The night went by pretty quick. Besides a brief period at 4 am when the sun rises, I slept through the night. With a wakeup visit from Doc and Mr. Kirby, coffee in hand, we rose to our first day in “paradise” as our cab driver Glen calls it. Breakfast was phenomenal as we met our guides for the week ahead and received our schedule. Casey’s over wheeling excitement makes it hard to not be excited for the days to come. Laura and Jeff are both on my boat, the Sea Monkey. My dive buddy Buck Lyon and I make the perfect team. Our first dive right off the coast of Virgin Gorda exceeded all expectations. It’s a different world down there. Jeff showed us Fire Coral, angelfish, trumpet fish, parrot fish, and most importantly lion fish. Embracing his Texan roots, Jeff’s pairing of spear gun, knife, good looks, and bravery prove too much for any lion fish unlucky enough to find themselves in his path. With bravery equaled only by knights in the dark ages he rises, takes aim, and one by one makes a dent in the growing population of invasive Lion fish. After watching Jeff’s war on Lion fish, we watched him dissemble and dissect one. We got to see the spikes and their menace as Jeff took apart his foe. Soon enough we found ourselves enjoying some great pizza and brownie sundaes at Mad Dog. After dinner we engaged in some games. Especially corn hole or sandbag toss. With my partner Coach Nevitt, doing more for the other team than our own, I had to place the team on my back and carry us as far as we could. We went down to Tucker and Guy but put in a good fight. After watching the project videos we walked back down the hill and back to the cabins.
The view from the porch of my cabins
