Today started much like the first day at the BVI last year: alarms going off at 6:30 to wake us manly men up from our slumber. After waking up and taking showers, we headed down to meet our morning bus and bus driver, Glenn. By about 8:00 we were eating a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, bread, and varied fruits. As soon as breakfast was over, we were introduced and introduced ourselves to our new instructors, got a sweet shirt, and us Marine Bio 2 guys received our new underwater cameras. After a short break to stretch our legs, we went over what underwater flora and fauna we would see during our dives throughout the week, culminating in a quick quiz/contest. Following the contest, and another short break, we had lunch, consisting of various types of sandwiches. Once we were done with lunch, we had Glenn bus us over to the boats, where we began to get ready for our dives. Before we set sail on our mighty aquatic vessel, the Sea Dragon, we were taught Boating 101 by Casey, where we learned engine and boat maintenance. Once we were properly trained in everything boat, we set forth to meet our watery destiny. Our first dive location was the previous years artificial reef, where we were able to see what coral had survived and what coral had gotten wrecked by people laying anchors on them. We saw some good growth, but the amount of anchor damage was fairly disheartening to see. Once we surfaced and boarded the boat, we discussed what we saw, and headed off to the site of our next artificial reef, just off of Baraka Point. There we went dove and scouted the area around our next spot. There, we saw many beautiful coral and fish, bringing awe and admiration to our manly hearts. I managed to spot some lobsters chilling out under a rocky overhang. I managed to capture some pictures and a video, where you can see that there are three large lobsters along the bottom, and two smaller ones hanging on the top of the overhang. Some people followed some squid for a while, and another managed to see a rare fish sitting along the bottom. Once we finished our dive, we headed back to land, were bussed down to our huts, showered, and then walked down to The Restaurant Above the Baths. There we ate dinner, chatted, took selfies and group pictures, and filled out our dove logs. That ends the day, leaving us with joyful memories and bright, shining hope for tomorrow. Except for the roosters in the morning, cause those guys are loud.
