Again the day started off with our usual routine: wake up, pack up, and head down to the cattle guard for the 8:00 taxi! For breakfast I had the bacon & cheese omelette again. After I finished dinner I went over to the Dive BVI shop and bought an awesome hat and shirt. Our plan for the day was to get the coral transplants finished by the end of the afternoon. Our first dive was comprised of all of Marine II scrubbing and scraping the coral areas for the transplant so they had a clear surface to transition to. Once we finished cleaning the site we headed back to the boat to brief our second dive. The swim from the boat to our site was about a 200yd swim one way, so we had a very tiring day. Our second dive we split up the Marine II into two seperate groups: one group to place the epoxy clay in place, and the other to guide Marine I in the process of coral transplantation. I was grouped in the placement of the epoxy group along with Andrew Suarez, Jack Kelley, and Mr. Kirby. The plan was to place the epoxy down and wait 20 minutes to transplant the coral in order to get a tougher base. This was our first time using the epoxy putty so we didn’t really know what to expect. When Marine I came over to start placing the coral all of our epoxy bases were completely rock hard, which was a big problem. After that we had lunch on the boat (cold cuts). We managed to avoid crisis by attatching more epoxy to the bases in order to house the corals. After hanging out and watching all of the Marine I guys attempt to transplant coral I swam back to the boat. We managed to get 8 potential transplants done, but next week’s crew should be able to have much more success now that we know how fast the epoxy hardens. Once we (Marine II) were on the boat Casey briefed us on our next dive. The dive’s purpose was to get pictures of the coral and collect the measurements of the coral. So, I jumped back into the water and headed out with Riley Slusher, my dive buddy, to go venture of to the coral. As soon as I got down to the bottom of the water I felt a really sharp soreness in the back of my mouth so I shot back up to the surface. It turns out I have a small cavity in my mouth and the nitrogen got stuck as I went down. So it turns out I got a tooth squeeze which was really unpleasant. I went back on the boat to rest and rinse off my gear. Once everyone was on the boat we took a few pictures and headed back to the island. Once we got back to the resort we had two and a half hours to relax before dinner. I sat in the air conditioned wifi room and worked on my blog for about an hour (that’s what I’m doing now). After dinner I will finish the blog!
After dinner~ For dinner we had a variety of pizza to choose from! We ate on the beach tonight and were just able to relax and have a fun evening. I had some BBQ pizza and a slice of meat lovers. Once dinner was over everyone just relaxed and talked as the light slowly faded into darkness. When dinner was over everyone walked back to finish our blogs and get ready for bed. Since I had alreayd worked on my blog I didn’t have much to go into besides dinner, which was nice. Anyways, once I finish my blog I’m going to go back to my cabin and get a goodnight’s sleep. Also, the whole “tooth-pinch” thing finally dulled and isn’t nearly as painful. Another great day in paradise where tomorrow we will be giving back to Virgin Gorda by cleaning up a beach! Thank you to the jesuit and Dive BVI staff members who have made this trip one of the highlights of my high school years.
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