After a long day of traveling, we were immediately greeted by the always joyful Casey and Jeff. They quickly got us onto the boat and we headed to the cabins. This year I am rooming Buck Lyon, Chris Wengierski, and Alex Curry. We were exhausted from a long day of travel so we showered up and soon went to bed. I resentfully woke up at 7:21 to the voice of Doc. We arose from our beds, showered up, and headed to breakfast. After consuming a bagel, we all were introduced to the BVI staff. Everyone joyfully listened to the staff introducing themselves. This year we are being instructed by Casey, Jeff 2.0, and Laura. The marine biology 2 guys can not wait to jump back into the clear blue waters again. We were granted that wish after listening to an awesome presentation about fish identification. Laura did a wonderful job sparking our attention and keeping us involved in her talk. After a quick lunch everyone quickly got onto the taxi and we headed out to all our favorite place: the boat. We got a great safety brief while we all day-dreamed of seeing thousands of fish and tons of coral. We were finally released to assemble our tanks, and once done assembling we hopped onto the boat and rode out to our destination. Arriving at the destination, we did our buddy checks and stepped out into the deep clear blue sea. We started descending and my right ear began to hurt. This had been a problem in the past and in startled me when it started to occur again. I continued to equalize but it just was not working. All of a sudden after countless times of equalizing, my right ear felt great. I then was able to freely swim and roam the wonderful underwater area of the BVI. I was able to re-experience the awesomeness of the corals and fish. We reviewed some quick diving skills while underwater and continued on our checkout dive. My favorite fish I saw today was either the moray eel or the school of squid that swam right by us as we ascended to the service. After the dive we headed back to the cabins and showered up.
After getting all clean, we began our journey to the always great mad dogs where we slammed down some delicious pizza and played some games. The best thing about the night was that we received a very unexpected gift. The dive BVI staff gave us extremely nice underwater cameras. I am super excited about these cameras because now I can share my experience with the family and friends. I can show others how unbelievable the scuba diving in the BVI truly is.
Well that is it for tonight, I will be back tomorrow for explanations of how wonderful our day goes. Thanks for reading.
