Today was a great day that started off with a wonderful breakfast at Casey’s office. I had an apple and an apple juice to get myself prepped for the two tank dive today. The two tank dive is where we went on two consecutive dives one after the other with two separate tanks at two separate sites. The first site was a wreck at Cooper island. There were actually three wrecks that were sunk intentionally that proved to be very beautiful. The wrecks were so cool because the fish had taken it over, and coral had formed all over it. The ships were such a beautiful site because it is so cool to see something that we see most days in a very different environment. Also I had so much fun because at one wreck I was able to swim into and area under the boat that was almost completely enclosed. Under the boat, I enjoyed looking at all of the fish that were hiding that I normally would see just diving around. After this wreck, we saw a lion fish that Jeff, the instructor, was able to kill. It was very cool to see an invasive species be taken out of its unnatural environment for the good of the BVI. After that dive, we went on a dive to research the coral in an area near our previous dive site. What happened was that I got a new dive buddy and a 20m rope. I got a new dive buddy, Joe, because Chris was not feeling well after the previous dive. Joe and I got in the water and set the 20m rope away from the boat and we recorded the measurements of live coral under the rope to see how the coral was forming in that area. After that second dive we went to cooper island to have fish and chips at a restaurant for lunch. The fish and chips were very good and that part of the island was very beautiful with all of the boats in the view of the horizon. After lunch we went back to the doc to get the cinder blocks ready for the coral replanting. At the doc, Joe and I combined our cinder blocks to compile them in a way that there were holes for the fish to swim through and holes for the cement. Joe and I made it so that there were cement holes at different elevations to test the coral growth. The purpose of the cement is to hold the dowl rods in place. What was fun about this was that we made our own cement, and Joe and I filled the holes ourselves, which I had never dealt with cement before. Also, joe and I had to make sure that the cinder block were placed on top of each other in such a way that the zip ties were easy to go through and hold the whole piece to make it stable. After Joe and I had signed our cinder blocks, we went back to the room to get ready for our last diner at Mad Dogs. The diner at Mad Dogs was quesadillas and nachos and they were presented to us by Inga. It was so unfortunate to have my last night at Mad Dogs, but the memories of Mad Dogs will live long forever because of the hospitality of Inga.
