Yesterday began with another early morning, and yet another early breakfast at the marina. We then boarded the boats to go to our dive site, the Jesuit Reef, at Long Bay. When we first arrived we were briefed on what the objective was and how we were to move our cinder blocks from the sand to our plant site all under water. We first lowered the blocks down about twenty feet with a rope. After all the blocks were in the water, Tucker and I moved some blocks by inflating our BCD and lifted the cinder blocks to our plant sites. Some of the heavier blocks required using lift bags, which made the carrying a lot easier. Once all the blocks were at the plant site, we assembled our coral holder by using zip ties. This completed our first dive of the afternoon. Or second dive consisted of bringing one of the amateur marine biology 1 students with Tucker and me to plant coral on our cinder blocks. Once we had planted the correct amount on each block, we took pictures of our beautiful creations. We then returned to the boat to partake in a dive competition where Señor Nevitt gave me a score of a 10, obviously the highest score. Next, we returned back to the cabins to attend mass. The church is on the top of a high hill on Virgin Gorda and overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. After a great mass, presided by a Canadian priest, we returned to the cabin to get our swim suits to have a beach barbecue. We threw the football on the beach until it got dark, then we ate some delicious hamburgers and hotdogs cooked by Jeff and Jeff. After eating a delicious dinner, we enjoyed a night snorkel where we saw a tarpin, sting ray, and squid. It was a great snorkel. After the snorkel the night was over and we were supposed to return to the cabins to go to bed. It was a great day that was only topped by today.
Today started with breakfast at the bottom of the hill, then a taxi to the marina. On the way, we dropped the marine biology 1 students off at the mural we painted last year. Once we got to the marina, we hopped aboard the boat and went out to a dive spot. The first dive spot appeared to be in the middle of the ocean, but after we could not anchor on a rock due to the strong current, we moved dive locations to Mountain Point. The point of today’s dive was to murder as many lion fish as possible, which was our community service. We descended about seventy feet and swam along the reef where we did not see many lion fish. Around the point, we saw a small motor boat sunken along the sand. In the boat, lion fish crawled with excitement, but little did they know they were about to be executed. As a group, we collectively executed about six lion fish, one more than the other dive group, which makes us all better than them. After the capturing, we returned to the marina where we pulled the lion fish up to the shore, and cut off the spines and the meat, so we could fillet them later. We offered locals a chance to learn a little bit about lion fish as we were preparing the fish for later. After our community service, we ate lunch at Rendezvous in the marina. We then returned to the cabins to have an afternoon on the beach. At the beach, we played football in the sand, which is a lot more tiring than it sounds. Once everyone was too tired to continue, we played jackpot, which became very physical very quickly. Tucker and I hiked up the hill back to our cabin avoiding the hot concrete with our bare feet. After showering, we hiked back down the hill to catch a taxi to go to our last dinner at Mermaids. At dinner, we took some final photos, then enjoyed a delicious dinner. After eating, we all said our thank you and shared some more photos and smiles. I would personally like to thank all of the Dive BVI crew for the entire week. Thank you for the effort you guys put in in order for me to have a good time. I know how much effort is out in behind the scenes, and for the last time, THANK YOU!
