Day 4: no blog
Day 5:
Beep beep beep, my alarm clock goes off at 5:45 am. Christian and I wake up to go for a run. We meet up with Casey around 6:15 at the cattle guard to go on a relatively “easy” run. At first the run was flat and relaxing but soon afterwards it got steep and hilly, very hilly. Along the way Cat (or Kat) joined us for a run and she turned out to be an incredible runner, along with Casey. Cat told me that she had done several marathons, including the Boston marathon last year which was bombed. As we ended our run I came back for a shower and it turns out that our water had been shut off so I had to use another cabins. Later, we went to breakfast and got ready for another amazing day. Today, right of the bat, we went straight to our dive sight with our new instructor, Scuba Steve (he was an incredibly smart man with many cool stories). As we arrived at the first dive sight the water was very choppy and rough. In fact, it was so choppy that I got sea sick (I managed not to through up thankfully). Our first dive, the shark and ray hotspot turned out to be an amazing dive. About 15 minutes into the dive we saw our first reef shark which was about 3 or 4 feet long. Soon after we ended up seeing around 4 sharks which were all very fascinating to see in person. This dive lasted for about 40 minutes and there was a strong current throughout the majority of the dive. Regardless, the fish and coral that we got to see were still very interesting. After the dive was over we came up to 15 feet, did our safety stop, and then got out of the water. As soon as I was out of the water, my stomach began to hurt again. I was in desperate need of land. So upon our arrival to the second dive sight, Deep Chromis near reck ally, I asked for permission to swim to shore from the boat. Scuba Steve warned me of the copious amounts of fire coral surrounding the area but I decided to trek on, fighting the sea sickness. It turns out that two other people were feeling bad and they accompanied me to shore. Steve was more than right as we got near the island, the fire coral was everywhere. However, we made it safely! After talking about a 45 minute break on some good ole land, the trio swam back to the boat, dodging the painful coral left and right. I quickly put on my scuba gear and jumped into the water to prevent any further sickness. As soon as I got underwater, I was extremely glad that I came back to the boat. After seeing several more sharks and turtles our group swam around with Casey over to the first wreck. As I peered into the deep blue I slowly made out the figure of a massive sunken boat. This was amazing! To top it off, as soon as we arrived there was a Goliath Grouper swimming about the ship. The grouper weighed around 300 pounds and was bigger than scuba Steve! I have never seen a bigger fish with my own eyes in my entire life, it was breath taking! I took as many photos and videos as I could but none of them do the justice of displaying its massive size (it is a very rare fish to see that shallow). As our dive continued we returned back to the coral reef and explored the area with our dive partners. Andrew and I saw a variety of sharks, lobsters, and stingrays. Before I knew it, our air was almost out and it was time to return to the surface. Upon surfacing we all talked about the grouper and other cool sights below. Then we made our way to get fish and chips from Cooper island. The fish and chips were amazing! After a delicious lunch and a little shopping and the store we made our way back to the boats to to snorkeling. Casey put a $50 prize out for anyone that found a sea horse. Unfortunately no one did. We had a great time snorkeling. I snorkeled with Edward and Andrew. We saw around 5 or 6 sea turtles and it was very fun getting to swim with all of them. We looked continuously for a sea horse at the same time but no one found one. One thing that we did get to see which was very cool was baby eels in the sand. After the snorkel we headed back to Virgin Gorda and then got showered/cleaned up for mass. Glenn picked us up for mass and we took pictures once we got there. As soon as the priest arrived we meet him and went to mass. The mass was nice and it did not run long. After mass we went straight to dinner. After dinner Casey gave us a presentation and then we came back to blog. Until tomorrow, sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bight (again).
Jack Kelley
