Great first day in the BVI. We started off with a tasty and filling breakfast buffet. Considering yesterday’s food consisted of McDonald’s and a lovely Italian dinner (chef boyardee canned lasagna), it hit the spot. We continued in the morning with an orientation and introduction to what we will be doing this week. From turtle tagging to spear fishing a lion fish, the week ahead of us sounds like a great learning experience, but also a blast. Lunch ensued with delicious mahi mahi sandwiches and we proceeded to separate in our dive groups. I got assigned to the best boat in the BVI’s, “Sea Dragon”. It consisted of 10 fellow classmates led by the always cheerful Casey and the Irishman Brian. The awesome Doctor Gruninger was also tagging along. Our dive instructors briefed us on our first dive that we were to do at about 1:30. It was to be a “check out” dive where we polished our dive and buoyancy skills. After a short break we headed over to the dock where the two boats (Sea Monkey and Sea Dragon) were waiting for us. We all lathered up on sunscreen just as we all had promised our mothers and we stepped onto the boat. First we put together our SCUBA gear just like we had practiced in certification courses. There were only a few differences in Dive BVI’s gear and International SCUBA’s (where I got certified) such as a weight belt as opposed to weight straps, but I managed to catch on quickly. We then drove out to the beautiful Valley Trunk Bay and got in the water for our first dive. We were split into two dive groups and mine consisted of instructor Casey, Christian Koejimans, Joe Wengierski, and Guy Harris. We descended and had lots of fun. After some tune up skills, we swam around a depth of 30 ft. then proceeded to test our depth by dropping down another 30 ft. We saw all types of coral from finger coral, staghorn coral, rope coral, and the list goes on. The highlight of the dive was spear fishing the lionfish. Casey shot three lionfish and brought them to the surface for examination. Lionfish are an invasive species that are extremely detrimental to ecosystems all over the Atlantic. Our action in eliminating some is a step toward trying to protect the world’s reefs. We then ascended with about 500 psi of air left and we got back onto the boat. We were debriefed then shipped back to the dock. Instructor Jeff dissected the lionfish but was extra careful with its harmful spike-like fins. We then went home for a quick shower and went to Mad Dog’s where we had wonderful pizza and dessert. A few informational videos created by students on Global Warming and Invasive Species concluded the night. I had a fantastic first day and I can’t wait for the wonderful week ahead
