Yesterday began with Doc coming into my room telling us that we were late to catch the bus. I did not know that the bus time was shifted 15 minutes earlier, so I quickly grabbed all of my gear and went to the cattle gate. Once again we ate breakfast at the office and I sat down on the benches by the bay to eat my food. After this both marine 1 and marine 2 went to the Jesuit Reef to rebuild coral. The difference between this project and last year’s is apparently substantial. The Marine 2 people constructed basins out of cement and cinder blocks while we searched for bits off coral with our scuba gear. After seeing Matt and Nick pick up pieces of fire coral we were kindly reminded by Jeff and his underwater whistle not to do that again. After splitting up both groups combined and attached coral to pegs in the cement in the cinderblocks. Once our reef was completed we had lunch on the boat and free swam for a few minutes. When we returned to our houses, because we had no afternoon activity scheduled, we played cards in our cabin for a few hours. After this it was time for mass. Our priest was a nice man from Quebec that was staying on the Islands for a brief time to do church work. The mass was only 30 minutes long before we went back to Guavaberry for a barbecue on the beach. After this delicious meal of a burger, hotdog, chips, and 4 cookies, both Marine Biology groups went on a night snorkel guided by Dive BVI. The coolest thing I saw on this was a tarpon and a Southern Sting Ray. Also, I waved my hand through the water and exposed little bioluminescent creatures that were too small to see otherwise. After this dive we didn’t have enough time to do our blogs last night so in my cabin we just played cards and went to bed. We woke up this morning without any cups of coffee and headed down to the cattle gate. Our Marine 1 group was set to continue a service project of painting a wall on the side of the road. After touching up last years white wall we painted over our diving crest with a Jesuit emblem. With this job completed, we went back to the cabins and headed back to the marina to cut open some lion fish with Casey and Jeff. We ate at the Rendezvous Point again and had 2 hours of free time afterwards. This time was mostly spent playing football on the beach. After getting all hot and sweaty at the beach, I went to my room by myself, showered, and came here to the internet cafe to write this. The last 36 hours have been exhausting, but amazing at the same time.
(Rebuilding damaged reef systems from coral fragments)
(I’m definitely going to miss this place)
