I woke up to the loud, irritating crow of a nearby group of roosters and sharp bursts of sunlight peaking out of a nearby group of blinds.
We then ate breakfast in the small, cramped entertainment center at Guavaberry resort, the breakfast food consisted of bagels and glazed donuts followed by yogurt.
After breakfast the Marine Biology one Group, dive instructor Caitlyn, and I divided off from the initial mass made up of marine biology students and teachers to venture out to the baths where we would explore and eventually reach our snorkel site. The BVI baths consists of many huge house-sized boulders that have gradually eroded over time from acid rain and other external weather factors leaving large dents in the granite rocks. In order to journey through the baths we had to constantly duck, crouch, and weave through openings that had naturally formed between the boulders. As we went along our dive instructor, Caitlyn, acted as a tour guide giving us a brief history of the origin of the boulders and miscellaneous facts concerning the rock various rock formations. She told us that the baths were allegedly the site of many different photo shoots for sports illustrated models.
Once we reached the shore Caitlyn quickly briefed us on some of the wildlife we would be seeing and where we would end the snorkel. After we prepared our equipment we then slowly entered the cool, eighty-two degree water where we all swam in a large mass led by Caitlyn. The fish we saw the most on the snorkel was the blue tang whom hovered around the various reefs searching for food. Also we saw a fairy basslet clinging to the the underside of a large rock and even the large, sleek shadow of a three foot barracuda in the distance. Other fish we saw include trunk fish, goat fish, blue chromis, red snapper, yellow tailed snapper, and trumpet fish. Once the initial snorkel ended our group took a break on a beach near the end of the snorkel site while we waited for lunch. During the break Jackson White and I decide to continue snorkeling on a small area to the right of our initial snorkel site. There we saw mostly the same fish, but also a large sedentary conch, sea urchin, squid, and juvenile damsel fish. After the snorkel we returned to the beach and ate a lunch of turkey sandwiches, sun chips, and m&m’s. After the brief lunch Caitlyn helped teach us some techniques to help us better identify fish, in an attempt to prepare us for our later fish identification dive at west dog island.
Next we took a taxi to the marina near the center of the town. There we prepared our equipment for our dive and set off for the wall to wall dive site at west dog island. Right as we reached the fringes of the island a rainstorm quickly enveloped our boat and the nearby island, and in turn shrouding Virgin Gorda. Even though it was raining it didn’t have any effects on the water below so we proceeded to get into the water and slowly descend to a depth of about thirty feet. While down there we took a tour of a reef more lively than the one we had seen the previous day. As we were touring Caitlyn was pointing out the names of fish we had learned about earlier in the day by writing on an underwater slate. After identifying some fish she then handed the slate to some of us to identify some fish for her, each of us ended up pointing out five fish each. During the dive two medium sized lionfish were also spotted lurking within the reefs. Among all the fish we saw the largest and most prominent was a massive three foot long Bar Jack. A two foot long grey, skittish angel fish was also spotted swimming among the reef searching for food. The most abundant fish was easily the sergeant major fish. Other fish we saw included the butterfly fish, goat fish, snapper, grouper, squirrel fish, and scrawled cowfish.
After the dive we took a break at Guavaberry resort so that we had time to shower and prepare for dinner at mad dogs followed by a short presentation on coral transplanting done by Casey, one of the dive instructors, whom reviewed last years results as well as improvements for future transplants. For dinner we ate a large diverse variety of different wraps, including , vegetarian, ham, and tuna with spaghetti and potato salad.
Once our dinner and presentation at mad dogs ended we all quickly scuffled back to our cabins so that we could have enough time to sufficiently fill out our blog for the night and retire to our beds to await the escapades of tomorrow.
