Day 4: Today, I got up with a good feeling that it was going to be a fantastic day on the ocean. I woke up, packed my diving gear, and got ready for the 7:45 meeting time at the cattle guard. We then went strait to the marina, where Casey had banana bread, bananas, bread with peanut butter and jelly, and cereal. We all quickly scrambled to get in line to feed our hungry bellies. We all loaded the boat w itch our scuba stuff and went on our way to the Jesuit Reef. Once we arrived at the reef, Casey briefed us on what we were going to do on the first. She told us that we, first, needed to find samples of Staghorn that could grow in our own reef. We snorkeled for about 45 minutes, finding multiple sample that could have been used in our very own reef. We came back to the boat, took our gear off, then listened to Casey talk more about breaking off samples. Laura, my dive master, went with our group today to help find Staghorn coral. On our journey, we saw multiple interesting fish like a trunk fish and a squirrel fish and a hawksbill turtle. Some say that it was Chad, the turtle we caught yesterday, but I, for one, believe that it was not Chad, for this turtle was too miniature to be compared to Chad. We took some samples and then retreated to the boat, where Casey had prepared a sandwich buffet. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a turkey sandwich. We then went back into the water, with our scuba gear, and planted the coral. Our assigned block was block 6. I documented and measured while Christian zip tied. Then, we traveled to the certain, which was the main block or the biggest block. This is where everybody did 1 piece of coral, while Christian and I did 2 pieces on our own block. Once we finished planting all of the corals, we came up and went back to the boat. We boarded he van, went back to the loft, and got dressed for church. When we arrived for mass, the priest was waiting for us. It was a short and simple mass, but it did the same thing as any other long mass that I have been to. We then went back to the hotel, got our swim suit, and headed to the beach for another fun and fantastic dinner. We had burgers and hotdogs. After we were done eating, we geared up for the night snorkel. On our snorkel, we saw tarpon, rays, and the biggest hermit crab I have ever seen. We then walked back to our loft, got ready for bed and then went to sleep. I enjoyed this day but I knew the Rhone would be the best dive.
Day 5: Today, I got up thinking about this day the whole week because today is the day that we will dive the Rhone. We ate our usual breakfast, one consisting of banana bread, bananas, bread with peanut butter and jelly, and cereal. We boarded the boat and headed for the Rhone. The ride there was a good 25 to 30 minutes on the boat followed by a briefing and our gear setup. Once we got into the water, we descended into the water, which at the bottom, was about 75 feet and crystal clear blue. We dove around the bow of the boat where the kings head was. It looked like a haunted spirit. We went around the bow and we saw a big angelfish, a lizard fish, and a big barracuda. We also went through the bow, seeing a very large lobster that looked tasty. We came back up because I was low on air from being tired. As soon as I got out, my hand started hurting badly. So because of this, I decided not to do the 2nd dive. I rested instead on the bow of the Sea Monkey. After everyone came up, we went to Cooper Island Beach Club. While everyone else was having fish n’ chips, I had grilled chicken and chips. Then, we went to snorkel next to the sea grass area. We saw numerous green turtles, three barracudas, and a large trunk fish. The current was very strong, even though we were forced to swim against it. The day ended with some good ole nachos and quesadillas. Today was my last dive while I’ll be here in the BVI
