Starting at 7 in the morning, day one began slow after an exhausting previous days travel. As a group we went over to Old Yarde for an amazing breakfast with members of the dive BVI staff. We met Casey, Jeff, Jeff Jr., Catlyn, Laura, Pablo, & Fernando & following their introductions we introduced ourselves to them & received awesome marine biology t-shirts. During the intermission between introduction and lunch we swam in a pool next to the diner and threw a football and frisbee. Then we ate lunch learned how to identify creatures that inhabit the ocean surrounding Virgin Gorga. Following lunch we went over to the docks & loaded up the boats & prepped for our review dive. Marine 1 & marine 2 separated into two boats. The dive BVI staff on the Marine 1 boat were Jeff, Catlyn, Pablo, & Fernando. We went down & saw crazy Mounts of fish & the water clarity was infinitely better than clear springs scuba park, which was the area where I was certified. While we were down there we observed the look & behavior of several marine species. Including a yellow head jaw fish, which would hide in a little hole in the sand anytime a diver would come near it, a spiny lobster, a huge lobster that was always just outside of a little cave with its front mandibles prepared to defend itself, & a queen angelfish, which was hanging around a rock beauty. There were dozens of different species of fish we saw on out 45 minute, 60 foot dive & I loved every minute of it because it was an entirely different experience from swimming in a lake. We finished the day off with dinner at Mad Dogs & recorded our dive in our dive journal. Also one of the best parts of the day was beating Austin Wallace in ring toss, a simple game played under the many stars of the BVI. Can’t wait for the rest of the trip after having a great first day.
Photo Credit Doctor Gruninger
