Day 4
Great fourth day in the BVI. Instead of the roosters waking me up this morning, I awoke to the sound of Mr. Kirby knocking on our cottage door. We were all exhausted and had a great sleep. Quick showers ensued with very little dialogue within the cabin as everyone was still tired. We headed down to the cattle guard and waited for Glen to pick us up. He rolled in around 8 and took us to the marina where breakfast in Casey’s office awaited us. It consisted of ceral, yogurt, fruit, and donuts, a wholesome breakfast fitting for the tiresome day ahead.
After setting up our gear and boarding the boat, we headed out to Cooper Island for a two tank dive. We stopped at Wreck Alley-a dive site consisting of four sunken boats, thus creating artificial reefs. These boats, which sat in open sand isolated from reefs, attracted numerous coral and fish. It was very cool getting to swim through the bottom of the ship. We saw a lot of fish, including blue tang, sergeant majors, and angelfish. The ship wrecks brought back memories of last years Rhone’s dive where we dove the RMS Rhone, a real shipwreck at about 80 ft. Mr. Kirby was with us on this dive, we call him “Special K”. Jeff the instructor was able to kill the deadly lionfish with a harpoon gun, it was awesome. We headed up to the surface after 40 minutes and took about a 45 minute break. We had some snacks and then dove back down to do some coral surveying. In buddy teams, we laid down transects and recorded what coral were beneath the line. It was surprisingly fun. After this, we were able to dive around the area on our own time which was awesome. Christian and I played with some feather coral (they retract when you make movements around them). We then headed upto the top after 45 minutes and headed toward the main part of Cooper island. There we had delicious fish and chips at the restaurant on the island, a green island that is extremely economically friendly.
After lunch we headed back to the marina to start construction of our own artificial reef. While last year we transplanted coral, this year we are creating a reef of our own. The process is relatively simple. We are using cinder blocks to build this reef. In the open holes of the blocks, we filled concrete which we made ourselves from sand, cement, and water. Wooden dowel rods were placed in the middle of the concrete which would later be used for the Marine 1 guys to transplant coral. We all designed our own units of blocks which would be tied together by large zip ties. While this does seem primitive, the artificial reef will attract many complex marine organisms. These cinder blocks will be placed by last year’s transplant reef in Long Bay. We are going to drop the blocks tomorrow in the morning. It’s going to be a bit tricky but I believe we will be successful.
The day was concluded with quick showers then a trip to Mad Dogs. We had nachos and quesadillas followed by delicious brownie sundaes. This unfortunately was our last night at Mad Dogs. The owner, Inge, is a wonderful lady and she was incredibly nice; her hospitality was great. Definitely going to miss her. Today was a great day and tomorrow should be great.
