We got off to a good start today when we got to orientation with the Dive BVI staff for the first half of the day. We learned a little bit about what to expect in the coming week and got to know each other a little bit. Then, we spent about an hour on fish identification so we know what to look out for on our dives. After lunch we drove down to the dock to split off into different boats. I was assigned to the “Sea Dragon” boat which already had our dive gear on it ready for us which was nice. We took the boats down to the Dog Islands for the first dive of the trip. We went down about 40 feet and were able to see at least 50-60 feet in front of us. We swam along to coral until we arrived at a large patch of sand at the bottom where we went over dive skills such as replacing a regulator and clearing a flooded mask as well as a few buoyancy skills. Then we swam across the reef and saw at least 20 fish of different species such as parrotfish both male and female. We also saw Staghorn coral, Elkhorn coral, and cup coral. We arrived at the “Chimney” which was a narrow passageway of coral that we swam through. It didn’t look like I was going to be able to fit with all of my gear but I surprisingly fit very comfortably. We made a safety stop before surfacing and finishing the dive. We then headed back to the mainland and went to mass on a small church overlooking the island. After mass we had lasagna for dinner on the beach before having some more downtime. Today really couldn’t have gone better for a first day and left me excited for whatever we will be doing tomorrow.
