The day started at 7:30 today! We had an 8:00 taxi to the Marina and we were told to be at the cattle guard by 7:45. We had breakfast at the marina today; I ate a banana, banana bread (cake), a cinnamon apple nutrigrain bar, and, of course, Pops. We then loaded our BCDs and regs into the boat. Our day revolved around coral! We had two scheduled dives: 1) to gather coral we could revive or replant and 2) actually replant the coral on the cinder block houses marine bio 2 made last week. Today was a real test of buoyancy! Today was one of my favorite days. I really enjoyed finding/breaking off coral to replant. Once we got to the dive site Casey let us snorkel around for about 50 minutes before we came back for a briefing. Casey briefed us on what we were looking for (elkhorn/Acropora palmata and staghorn/Acropora cervicornis) and how we should break them off if need-be. We then hopped in the water, where Laura grabbed a solo picture of each one of us. We were diving rather independently but my group instructor was Mem todayM my dive partner was Michael White. I had a lot of fun looking for coral. When we finally found a patch of elk horn I was the first one to get to break of a piece for the nursery. It was a little hard at first to stay parallel to the ground but I managed to get a good piece. From there on it was a nice relaxed dive, where I constantly kept my head on a swivel for more coral. There was a lot of fire coral t stay away from but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. I actually spotted one big elk horn coral (seen below in pictures). Fortunately it was extremely healthy, but unfortunately we couldn’t harvest any because there was no need to take away from a really healthy coral specimen. We then hopped back on the boat for lunch and our surface interval. My first dive was in really shallow water (>25ft). We were the last group to get on the boat; however, we were the only group to see elkhorn coral. I had eaten lunch and was ready to hop in the water when Casey and Jeff decided to mush all the lunch stuff into one “wrap.” This wrap consisted of an outer layer of turkey meat, and then on the inside: ketchup, mustard, peanut butter, snickers bar, and peanut m&ms. Whoever ate this “wrap” completely and held it down got to eat second in line at dinner. Well, I decided I could eat the whole thing – I figured why not – but I was worried about keeping it down on a wavey boat. So I ate the thing, it was pretty disgusting, and kept it down, which earned me an early dinner. Now whether I got dinner early or not I still would have tried to see if I could eat the whole thing. Casey made sure to take plenty of pictures, proof I ate this thing if you don’t believe me. After my little snack I headed back into the water to replant the coral. We did this dive with just our dive partner. Michael and I hopped into the water and headed off. We attached, measured, and secured our coral to the wooden peg labeled 2014-9. We then planted a coral pice on the three cinder block house ( The School Rock). We were then supposed to head back to the boat. Before we headed up we played in the sand bar and did hand stands, flips, and sand tricks. We then saw an enormous hermit crab in a conch shell. We hopped on the boat and headed back to Guavaberry. We showered and got ready for mass. We got back at around 3 and mass was at 5ish. I showered, played some Kings in the Corner, the. Started to get a head start on my blog (which you are reading now). I haven’t been to mass yet so this is all I have right now. When I return I will type the details on our beach Mass, BBBQ (Beach BBQ), and our night snorkel!
So we went to mass and it turns out there was another couple who was going to this mass celebrating their 50th anniversary which was a pretty cool thing in my opinion. The mass was short and sweet. Our priest was a rather small man with white hair; he was from Canada, specifically the territory (I think that’s what it’s called) of Quebec. After mass we hopped back on the bus and were waiting to leave. Wile we were waiting we saw a bunch of local kids having a dunk contest which was fun to watch from the top of the hill. Then the wife who was celebrating her 50th anniversary came over and started a conversation with us. She was from Puerto Rico and had been coming to BVI with her family for 30+ years! Finally everyone got on the bus and we were off to the BBBQ! When we arrived we were greeted by Casey and Jeff’s awesome dog, Dixie! We started the night off with a big circle game of frisbee where Dixie would run across the circle and back to get the frisbee; after about 10 minutes the poor dog looked deadbeat tired. I hopped in the water to just relax for a little before dinner. I always feel a little more relaxed in the water. Then I hopped out for dinner, in which I ate second! We had hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, soda, and cookies. Dinner was great thanks to Jeff’s grilling skills! We then got to hop into the water for our snorkel, which I was excited for. It was a little chilly, seeing as I forgot my rash guard at the casa, but really neat! We saw some really cool stuff: a tarpin, which was really cool, a slipper lobster, which just looked like a lobster tail, a spiny lobster, a stingray (Female), and a bunch of bioluminescent plankton, and some squids! Thank you to Caitlin for not loosing her cool as some of us shined our lights and accidentally kicked her! I had an awesome time and was glad we saw some neat stuff! We then came back on the beach, dried off, and headed home. We didn’t have an official log time tonight but I figured I should write something down before I forget the cool details! So goodnight now I am headed to bed and tomorrow I will give you an update on the artificial reef, The Rhone, and a sea grass snorkel!
So today started off to a great start with a fresh 9.5 hours of sleep under my belt. We had another breakfast at the Marina today! I had banana bread, a banana (for potassium), apple juice, and Fruit Loops (somebody had the audacity to take the Pops). We loaded our stuff on the boats, grabbed our BCDs, and headed out. Today we had Casey, Caitlin, and Doc aboard the Sea Dragon! Today was the best day of the trip. Yesterday was awesome but today was just the absolute best! We went over to the RMS (Royal Mail Steamer) Rhone. Upon arriving there, Casey gavels a quick history brief about the wreck itself. We got to the ship early enough so that we had the entire wreck to ourselves, which was AWESOME! Today I dove in Casey’s group and saw a bunch of cool stuff. I saw my first live lion fish (which was later spear-gunned by my dive buddy Michael White), a peacock flounder, a massive southern ray, a spotted eel, a couple of barracudas, a sea turtle, a ton of horse-eye jack, a squid, and a boatload of other cool fish. The wreck itself was absolutely amazing! I got a lot of pictures and just thought it was the coolest experience ever. We actually got to go in the wreck. We saw a sea turtle when we just when in, who was pretty close to us, and I just managed to get a picture of him escaping through a hole in the wreck. We got to see each of the parts of the boat: the stern, the bow, the crow’s nest, the boilers, the propeller, and the marble flooring. My first dive was at depth of around 75-80ft so we had to be mindful of our bottom time. After 30min we ascended back up to the boat for snacks a d trivia after our safety stop. We had snacks, learned more about the Rhone’s interesting history, and then played a trivia game. Michael White won it and his prize was being allowed to speargun the lion fish.Before we went into the water, Casey told us some creepy ghost stories which actually gave me goosebumps. Scared of ghosts and jealous of Michael, we then went back down to the bottom to see Michael spearfish the lion fish. He didn’t miss, but it wasn’t a direct kill so Jeff Sr. had to take it and “brain it” with his knife. We then went to the shallower portion of the wreck where I saw the marble on the ship and the door number of one of the passengers who survived the Rhone, a rich, Italian man, who was in room 29, whose room number we rubbed three times (clockwise) for good luck, the best meal, and the most beautiful wife. The dive was really cool. We had some current to swim against. This was where I saw all of the horse-eye jack, the barracudas, and the squid (who was no bigger than my hand). After the dive we came up and headed to Cooper Island for an amazing lunch of fish and chips. It was literally the best fish and tartar sauce I ever had. I sat next to Caitlin and Christian directly across from Tom. I had a Sprite with my lunch. I had four pieces of fish which I savored every single bite with the right amount of tartar sauce. They gave us the dish in a bucket. It was filled with fries and then had fish on the top. I easily and gladly polished my bucket off along with my plate of tartar sauce. We had some good conversation. Caitlin couldn’t eat the rest of her fries so she gave them to Tom, who then ate some, and then I took the rest (which was about 1/3rd full). After a full stomach we had a long snorkel on the sea grass. I didn’t really see anything besides some cool corral and a Blue Tang Clan. Even though I didn’t see anything I had a long swim back against the current to get to the boat. I finally got back on the boat, exhausted, and got ready to head back. We got back to the Marina and were ready to go, but Sam Wyand had to go buy some things in the shop so we just waited in the taxi for a while. Then we went back to Guavaberry to shower and get ready for dinner. We had about 2 hours to relax so I decided to shower and then blog, like yesterday. I still have to go to dinner, which is quesadillas and nacho night. So that’s a wrap of everything that has happened as of 6:00 today! Today was such an awesome day, but it was our last day we would scuba dive. I’ve had such am awesome trip and I wanted to just say “thank you” to my loving parents! The next bit of my blog will only cover dinner so it should be rather short, but you never know what might happen.
Well we had nachos and quesadillas for dinner! They were really good! There was so much cheese! After dinner we all just talked and hung out for a while. We then filled out our logbooks for the past two days. Inge (Een-ga), the owner of Mad Dogs, came out and offered us free tee shirts so we could remember Mad Dogs. After the tee shirts she told us that we were the last jesuit group to eat at Mad Dogs because she would be leaving Mad Dogs next year. Then Caitlin showed us a bunch of cool squid pictures her husband, Jeff Jr., got when he was diving. It was so cool there were like a huge swarm of squid. There were probably more than 50 in one photo; those pictures were pretty neat. Then we wrapped up the night by saying goodbye to Inge and picking up a copy of one of Dr. Gore’s books. This one had a bunch of really cool pictures that I can’t wait to share. Then we headed back to grab our iPads and go to the Internet cafe where I finish my two-day blog. Goodnight!
This trip has been such a blessing and I just wanted to thank Doc, Mr. Kirby, Mr. Waits, Casey, Jeff Sr., Sarah, Caitlin, Jeff Jr., Mem, and Laura for putting this trip together and making it an amazing experience!
