I slept very well a couple nights ago, as I was exhausted from the turtle chasing. We woke up, got our gear ready, and met up with the group at the cattle guard. Glen, the taxi driver, then picked us up and took us to the marina where we had breakfast of banana bread and fruit. We then got all of our stuff together and loaded up the boat. We traveled to the Jesuit reef, where the previous year and week had planted coral. We snorkeled around looking for living staghorn coral that had signs of near death so we could preserve these living pieces. We then dove down and cut some of these living pieces from the dying stems and left them in a container in the water. We saw a turtle during this, some say it was our dear friend Chad. We got back on the boat and ate lunch during a surface interval. Lunch consisted of sandwiches, chips, candy and Powerade. We sat on the boat eating and resting for about an hour and then briefed on our coral planting. We were to dive down in our buddy groups and find our designated planting area, then we were to zip tie the coral to pegs protruding from the cinder blocks. In addition, we were to document the length, width, and number of points on the coral. After, we were to go to the big patch in the center and plant one more. Joe, Brendan, and I dove down and planted our coral. Brendan measured the pieces as I documented, and Joe zip tied them down. We did the same in the center reef and then explored a little underwater. After, we returned to the boat, disassembled our gear, and headed back to the marina. We unloaded the boat and got on the taxi to go back to the cabin to shower before church. We met up again and headed to the church. The church was on top of a large hill and we could see the water very well. It was a good, short service and after we headed to the cabins again to grab our gear for the night snorkel. We then went to the Guavaberry Resort Beach and had a hamburger and hotdog cookout dinner. We played frisbee, hung out, and then briefed for the snorkel. We all were given flashlights and got in the water. We saw a large tarpon, a squid, and many other fish. At the end of the snorkel we turned the lights off and quickly moved our hands through the water. This agitated the bioluminescent plankton who lighted up for us. This was very cool. After we went to the cabins to shower and sleep.
Today, we woke up and again went to breakfast at the marina. It was banana bread, fruit, and cereal. We then loaded up the boat and boated over to the dive site. We were diving at the Rhone, a nineteenth century mail ship that sunk during a hurricane, right off of Salt Island. This created a large artificial reef with many different fish. We were to do two dives today at the Rhone. The current today was very strong. The first dive we got to eighty feet and saw immediately three squid, a peacock flounder, and an octopus. The octopus was very camouflaged in the coral and when disturbed swam away and camouflaged itself somewhere else. We toured around the sunken ship and saw many different types of other fish. We also swam through the hull of the ship and then soon returned to the surface because we were running low on air. We took about an hour surface interval and then went back in. We saw another section of the ship and many other fish. We saw old wrenches from the ship covered with coral and a silver spoon from the ship. We toured around for a while and saw a barracuda and a spotted eagle ray. After, we returned to the surface and boated over to Cooper Island for fish n’ chips. After, eating we had some time to relax on the beach. We then snorkeled over some sea grass and saw a bunch of turtles and barracudas. This was all very exciting. The current was very strong so it took a while to swim to the boat. After we went back to the marina and cleaned up the boat. We then went back to the cabins to shower before dinner. We met up and walked to Mad Dogs for a delicious meal of nachos and quesadillas. We then hung out there for a while and played frisbee. After, we returned to the cabins to grab our iPads and came to the Internet café where we are now blogging. Another exciting, adventurous day in the BVI.
