Yesterday and today were filled with fun and excitement. Yesterday’s activities included turtle tagging, seeing the rock formations in the baths, snorkeling around the baths, and a cookout at a beach. For turtle tagging, marine 1 separated into two groups: team 1 and team B. Team 1 went in the water to get dragged behind the boat by rope first. It was a fiasco. Not only did we not spot any turtle, but three of the people got stung by jellyfish, giving them some nasty looking stings. When team bravo (the team of which I was a part) went in, I focused way too much on dodging the jellyfish that I didn’t really search for turtle. So afterwards, the whole crew went to Little Dix Bay to catch the turtles. I was the only participant to try to rodeo a turtle, which is when one jumps off the side of the boat to pounce a turtle in the water, of course with the intention of catching it. I barely grazed the shell before it darted off lightning fast. The others went around snorkeling, and Luke Gomez was the only one able to successfully catch it. When we brought it back up to the boat, Dr. Gore, Jeff and I all had to wrestle with it so we could take its measurements and put him back in the water. After lunch, everyone got back together to go to the Baths to look at all the rock formations and facing in those rocks that people believe pirates carved to scare away people. Afterwards, we want snorkeling. I saw another turtle. After snorkeling, we had a cookout for dinner and celebrated Duncan’s and Jackson’s birthday. Then we went night snorkeling, when we saw a squid swimming around, a few shrimp, and either a sea cucumber or an octopus (we couldn’t figure out what it was because it was in a little cavern).
Today, marine 1 visited the Rhone ship wreck, learning about how it was the fastest ship at its time in the mid 1800s and the stories of how an unexpected hurricane killed every passenger except one Italian man and killed only one crew member, the captain. Then we went to Cooper Island for for lunch, where I had my first taste of British fish n’ chips. Delicious. Then we did our sea grass snorkel off the beach of the restaurant on cooper island. My snorkel buddy and I spotted five turtles ! We also a bunch of other amazing creatures like rays, eels, and tarpon just to name a few. After our snorkel, we went back to the resort to freshen up for mass. The church was on top of a short mountain and had a great view of the town and the beaches. After mass, we went straight to dinner at Top of the Baths Restaurant again. Finally after dinner, Casey gave a quick presentation of coral replanting, which is what we are going to do tomorrow. We are one of the only two groups to in the BVI to have a coral replanting program ! Stay tuned to see how it turns out. 🙂
