The day started off with a banging on the door by Mr. Kirby at 7 am and I had a lot of trouble getting out of bed from being so tired from the previous day of diving. We started the day with breakfast at the marina and then went straight to the boats. We took a 15 minute boat ride to Paul’s Grotto for the first of two dives today. During this dive, I saw all kinds of coral including fire coral, staghorn coral, elkorn coral, cup coral, and sea fan coral. I was two types of crabs: arrow crab and a crack crab. I also saw some sea shrimp and I touched a couple of moon jellies. They were extremely soft and silky. I saw two 2 huge spiny lobster about 2 feet long and small spotted lobster. Some fish I saw were sergeant majors, 4 eye butterfly fish, damsel fish, parrot fish, sea bass, fairy basslets, a huge silver queen fish, a barracuda and I witnessed my dive guide shoot a lionfish and that was very interesting. He killed it with a spear gun. This we were down under water for about 40 minutes and the deepest depth we dove to was about 60 feet. After we surfaced, we got back into the boat and had a 1 hour surface interval to let the nitrogen levels in our system settle and we jumped back into the salty sea and began to dive again West Seal Dog Island. During this dive, we went to a depth of about 68 feet and I saw my first shark. It was so cool and one of the main reasons I wanted to go on this trip. I saw 1 Caribbean reef shark right when I jumped in the water and during the middle of the dive, I spotted 3 more and the biggest one I saw was about 5 feet long. I saw many different types of fish. For example, I saw a barracuda, a couple sea bass, a huge hogfish, a huge grouper, and a couple yellow jacks. I also saw a southern stingray that was about 3 feet long from mantle to tail. This dive was about 39 minutes long and after we surfaced, we went back to camp and ate lunch. After a hearty meal, we went to the bathes of the BVI and we did a hike through the rocks towards the ocean. One we reached the ocean, we did a snorkel from the beach back towards Guavaberry resort where we are staying. After dinner we went back up to our cabins and we cleaned up and went straight to dinner at a restaurant right by the bathes. After dinner we came back to and chilled till 10:30pm when I went to bed.
The next morning, may cabin was woken up at 7 am again and we went straight to breakfast. After breakfast, we headed down to Sea Monkey and took off for the Rhone Dive. The Rhone was a very expensive Caribbean ship that sunk in 1867 due to a hurricane. The boat ride out there was about 35 minutes and I fell asleep on the boat. Then I woke up, put my scuba gear on after the briefing, and jumped in the water. The water was so blue and I could see all the way to the bottom. The deepest I dove towards the bow was 80 feet. Some critters I saw were a juvenile brown moray eel, a couple sea turtles, another lionfish, and many different schools of fish. After about 35 minutes, we surfaced and began our hour surface interval. During this break, our dive instructors told us about the story of the Rhone and it was very interesting. After the surface interval, we jumped back in the water and began the Rhone dive towards the stern. The deepest I went was 69 feet and during this dive I saw a 5 foot spotted moray eel, a stingray, a 4 foot barracuda, and many different types of fish. During this dive I rubbed the window of a very lucky Italian man who survived the wreck, I touched Captain Wooly’s spoon, I investigated the propellor of the boat, and was able to swim through the back part of the boat. After about a 45 minute dive, we surfaced and headed straight for Cooper Island. Here we ate the best fish and chips I’ve ever tasted in my life and we got some ice cream. One the way to the boat, one of the dive masters caught a baby octopus and was showing everyone on the back of the boat. When it reached the water, it got scarred and inked everywhere and it was really funny. After that we began a snorkel off of cooper island where I spent the majority of the snorkel looking for a sea horse in the grasses but was unable to spot one. It was frustrating but I was able to see many various types of fish and about 6 or 7 stingray. After that we went back to Virgin Gorda island and went back to our cabins to rest for and hour or so. Finally it was dinner time and I was starving. We had a cookout and it was great and then a couple of the guys began playing tackle ultimate frisbee and that was a lot of fun. And to end the day, we proceeded with a night dive where I was able to see an octopus, many sea urchins, sea worms, a massive spiny lobster, 3 stingray, many night time fish, a massive 3 foot porcupine fish, and a cute baby squid that I decided to play with for about 15 minutes straight. After spending a whole day playing in the water, I went back to the cabin, cleaned up and went to bed. Even though we aren’t scuba diving tomorrow, I am so excited for the turtle tagging and the invertebrate touch tank and I can not wait to start jumping in the water.
