I just wanted to start this blog off with a HUGE thanks to the dive BVI staff for everything they have done so far and to Dr. Gore who gave us a great turtle tagging (or chasing in my case) experience and presentation. Today I woke up at about 7:20 again and headed down to the cattle guard at around 7:30. We had breakfast and a turtle presentation this morning, courtesy of Dr. Gore. Today Casey brought us a whole box filled with enormous doughnuts (chocolate and glazed). I had half of the huge doughnut, a peach yogurt, and Pops! The turtle presentation was really, really cool! We got too see how to ID the different turtles and then looked at some tagging graphs. We were split into our two groups again, Sea Dragon and Sea Monkey. We (Sea Dragon) were on Sea Turtle Duty first and then we would switch after lunch with the other group, who went to Savannah Beach to learn about invertebrates. Our method of turtle catching consisted of holding on to a floatations device behind the boat while we scanned for turtles. I liked getting towed and “power-snorkeling” the best! We saw a TON of turtles while we were out there, I saw my second stingray, and my first barracuda. After a tiresome two hours of chasing turtles – note: not catching, chasing – we headed back onto the boat and went in for lunch. Today’s lunch was special, seeing as we had a delicious meal of cheeseburgers and fries, which I savored. We then saw Casey and Jeff’s dog Dixie, which was really awesome! We then left on the taxi to go snorkel. Before we left, Glenn, our taxi driver, picked up a couple of extra college kids from UNC, which were kindly welcomed. After dropping them off at the baths we headed the opposite direction to go to Savannah Beach. By this time I was extremely tired and was about ready to fall asleep on the spot. When we got there Caitlin and Sarah identified a few invertebrates out of water for us. We then snorkeled and looked around for whatever invertebrates we could find. I forgot my camera at first, which was a bummer because I saw a couple of really close reefs with a bunch of juvenile fish. I headed back out of water to snag my camera and grab a few pics for the blog today! I then headed in, to just relax in the water and talk with the guys, Sarah, and Caitlin. So we finally got out of the water, hopped in the taxi, picked up the guys from the Marina (who got a turtle, which Mem caught), showered at the casas, and finally headed off to Mad Dogs for dinner. Tonight was lasagna and veggi ziti. I had the meaty, cheesy lasagna which was yummy. After dinner I played frisbee with Tom, Garret, Brendan, and Dylan. We played for a while them we headed in and talked with Caitlin forever. It was really fun to just relax and have a fun conversation with her and all of the other guys. We then left Mad Dogs and headed to the Internet Cafe to type this blog, which you are currently reading. We listened to some British interpretation of the Steve Irwin Show on a Spanish channel, but the show itself was in English for some reason. Tomorrow we will replant and find coral, go to mass, and have our Beach BBQ! Goodnight!
