Waking up this morning was tough, I finally crawled out of bed around 7:20 after much procrastination & I have never made a better decision. After arriving at the cattle gate at 7:45 we were taken over to the harbor for breakfast at the Dive BVI office, thanks to all of Dive BVI for hosting our meal & for everything they’ve done throughout the week. Soon following that we were debriefed on our special dive for that morning, we were going to go on a grand two tank dive exploration of the RMS Rhone, a British mail ship that took on the torch as an unsinkable ship. In this way it was similar to the titanic, & needless to say it met the same fate at the hands of a hurricane crashing it into the coastline & now rests just off the shores of Salt Island. On our first dive down to the site of the aft section of the ship, the other half ended up just off of the shore when it split. We reached our lowest depth ever at 81 feet just under the front of the ship, & we were down there for forty minutes rather than the thirty we were supposed to be down there. We started off down at the bottom & traveled down the mast & into a break in the topside deck & explored the inside of the ship, which was amazing to see because it was like time was moving slow as Jeff, our fearless guide, led us through it. As we inched through the wreck we saw countless squirrelfish, a great barracuda, & a small moray eel. Upon exiting the ship we came upon one of the liveliest reefs, pertaining to the amount of growth on the ship, because its been accumulating there for 146 years. Then we swam underneath the front tip of the boat & then back over the top of it to get back to the boat & on the way back we came upon a hawksbill turtle and a pack of thirteen squid, & observed them change color & float in a row following the chief squid on one end. We then returned to the boat switched out tanks & began our dive around the back of the boat. The back of the boat was just as amazing as the front because there were huge schools of fish, an amazing green turtle, & an enormous cubera snapper. Also we got to swim through the propeller, which was amazing because its only the second ship ever to be created with a working bronze propeller, & we rubbed the lucky porthole, which belonged to the only surviving passenger. Then, we traveled to Cooper Island where we had some of the best fish & chips I’ve ever had & enjoyed the beautiful view from the restaurant. Then we snorkeled in the waters off of Cooper Island where we saw lots of fire coral, another great barracuda & a couple of large tarpin. The snorkel was great & the water was clear, but it was really exhausting. We finished off with our last dinner at Mad Dogs & we said goodbye to all our friends there. This was by far the most exhausting day & I can’t wait to go to sleep & prepare to help restore a coral reef tomorrow.
