Well the flight from Dallas was fun, or as fun as a flight can be I guess. and I slept on sections of the last two flights (the one from Puerto Rico to the BVI was a propeller plane, which I thought was cool). But talking about sleeping on a plane would make a boring blog, so I guess I will skip ahead to actually waking up in the BVI and todays events. After waking up this thirty minutes before we met to leave for breakfast, and checking for about the hundredth time to make sure I had all of my diving equipment and sunscreen, (yes mom and dad, I made sure to put on sunscreen) we headed excitedly towards the beach, minds filled with the thoughts of a quick breakfast and jumping into the water to swim in the worlds clearest and purest waters. Arriving for breakfast, we met some of the people who would be teaching us about the local ecosystem, what we would be doing, and where we would be diving. So after a delicious breakfast filled with scrumptious bacon, eggs and some potatoes, we sat down and listened as Laura gave us “Diving in the BVI 101”, which consisted of some of the fish we would be seeing as well as discussion about how we will be transplanting coral and news on past groups coral growth. After much discussion and several breaks sitting in the shade outside talking, we FINALLY were able to go and do what we all had been eagerly waiting for since we first heard about a Marine Biology trip to the British Virgin Islands… we ate lunch. But after our delightful lunch, we quickly walked towards the taxi which transported us down the small roads to the boats which would soon speed us across the clear blue waters towards our first dive. Caitlin being our instructor and leader for our undersea adventure, she told us the game plan (technically “dive plan” I guess). The waters were cool, clear, and, as one person quaintly reminded us, very salty. We went over some drills including controlling buoyancy, what to do if you lost air, and how to drain a partial mask fill, and in doing so the mix of salt water and sunscreen which entered my mask burned my eyes and I had to quietly cry the burn away. But this small bump in the road was very quickly driven out of my mind as we saw beautiful fish, flowing coral, and even more beautiful fish. Just being able to look out over the ocean floor and being able to see forty to fifty feet in any direction (which we later were amazed to know was actually poor visibility) was incredible in itself; hundreds of times better than the ten to fifteen feet of visibility during the dives in lakes and quarries we partook in Texas. During the dive we identified numerous fish and coral types, being able to get closer to the fish than I had ever been in my life. We visited and swam through Jacque Cousteau’s favorite dive place, “The Chimney”. Looking at the chimney, I thought that we were going to have to squeeze ourselves and suck in our stomachs to get through, but we got through fine, with only one or two minor scrapes from bumping an elbow into the hard coral sides. After our dive, we found out that an instructor from the other group managed to spear a lion fish and we were able to watch a quick seaside dissection, finally able to see the spines we had only seen in pictures. After the dive and dissection we headed back to our BVI homes to shower and get ready for dinner at Mad Dog’s. The dinner was very good, as pizza always is, and we all sat and talked around a table. After filling out our dive logs, we went and got our iPads to do our blogs about our days, which, as you are now completely up-to-date, I have now finished.
*I have no underwater photos as I forgot to charge my camera beforehand. Instead is a picture of Air Margaritaville in Puerto Rico. I hope Jimmy Buffet approves.
