On my first day in BVI, I woke up to the sound of a rooster crowing, a sound interestingly more soothing than an alarm clock. Shortly afterwards, I and the rest of the people on the trip headed to a large, delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, and assorted fruits. During breakfast, we were warmly greeted by Casey, Jeff, Jeremy, and the other members of Dive BVI. Next, we spent the morning discussing environmental impacts in our world and learning about an assorted number of fish, coral, and other marine species. For instance, we touched on how several businesses such as tourism rely on the ocean to survive. After these discussions, we had a lunch break and headed off to the ocean, ready to begin our dive. I was on the ship, Sea Monkey, and dived in Jeremy’s group at the Bronco Billy dive site. When we were at last, thirty feet underwater, I was astounded by all the different marine life I saw: barrel sponge, elkhorn coral, parrotfish, butterflyfish, and angelfish. The reef had fish hiding everywhere, and towards the middle of the dive, we even saw a nurse shark, around three feet long, lying on the sand. We watched the predator for a few minutes until it decided to slowly get up and swim away into the reef. Following that encounter, we swam around for around twenty more minutes, observing more unique marine life, and then returned to the boat. After the dive, we went to a great dinner with a view of the coastline. Overall, I had a positive, exciting experience from day one of our trip. The life I saw was extraordinary, made up of creatures one might normally see in an aquarium, and I was finally able to swim with the creatures I’ve learned about firsthand. Day one was everything I hoped for in this trip, and I’m looking forward to day two.
