It was a very exciting and fun day in the ocean today. After one whole year of waiting, I was finally able to dive again! The day started off bright and early at 7:30 am when we arrived at the teachers cabin to eat breakfast. I wore my green swim suit and my blue dive BVI rash guard that was given to me last year to protect my fair skin from the sun. I ate a light breakfast of cereal and some fruit this morning. Immediately after breakfast, I grabbed all of my scuba gear and the excitement grew. My cabin walked down to the main road and waited for Glenn, our taxi driver (same as last year), to drive us to Virgin Gorda yacht harbor where we would be meeting the dive BVI staff and would be boarding either sea dragon (my crew) or sea monkey. Before leaving the harbor, the captain of our boat, a British man named Gaz, and Casey introduced the boats and went through all of the procedures and safety precautions just in case anything were to happen while diving. After that, I chose my buddy diver (John Sauer) and then set up all of my scuba gear for the day. We then shoved off from shore and took a 15 minute boat ride to the Dog islands to dive. Upon arrival, i strapped on my boots, fins, mask, and scuba gear. I grabbed my go pro to take footage of the dive, and completed my safety buddy check with my dive partner. I then walked over to the end of the boat and stepped into the water. It felt really good to be back in the ocean again. Once everyone was in, we all decent and circled up around our dive leaders Gaz and Becca to practice our buoyancy and other skills necessary for the dive. Once we completed our skills, we went on for a small 15 or so minutes dive near the boat looking at the small fish in the coral reefs. When it was time to ascend, we completed our 3 minute safety stop and exited the water and immediately drank water and ate some snacks for energy for the next dive. Gaz then drove the boat to another of the dog islands to dive and gave us a briefing and General layout of the dive site. Once I soaked in the information, I put on my scuba gear and repeated the safety check process with John and then leaped into the water once completed. As a group, my group leader, Becca, took us around the island and pointing out different types of corrals and marine life. One thing that was cool was that Becca would point out fully grown fish and then would later point out the baby or juvenile form of that same fish. For example, when blue tang are fully grown, they are bright blue (Dory from Finding Nemo) and when juvenile, they are a bright and vibrant yellow. Becca then took us to a special dive site where a sunken plane was laying and we swam through it and it was very cool and a tight squeeze. That was pretty much the end of our dive and we ascended to the surface, exited the boat, and stored and broke down our gear. Don’t worry mom and dad, I took lots of pictures and videos today. Once everyone was settled in the boat, Gaz drove back to Yacht harbor and we ate lunch at a restaurant right along the water. It was very good and the whole Jesuit team was picked up by Glen and he took us back to the cabin the upload all of our extra gear except for our scuba stuff. After the pit stop, the whole group walked up to the Virgin Gorda Baths, a very big tourist attraction on the island, and we walked and hopped through the rocks all the way to the beach. We walked all through the rocks and it was very slippery at times as the water splashed upon each rocks surface. We walked through the smallest pathways and it was really fun all the way to the water. It felt so good to jump into the ocean. I then put on my scuba/snorkel gear and the whole group snorkeled all the way back to the Guavaberry Beach. It was about a 45 minute snorkel and the only big marine life we saw were about 4 Barracuda about 2 feet long and a single stingray close to the same size. The snorkel was really tiring but also really fun. When we exited the water, we walked back up to our houses to clean up and relax for about an hour. After the break was over, we walked down to the commissary to present our BVI Projects to The Dive BVI staff. My BVI project group talked with Gaz and he gave up ideas on how to alter our project to make it easier, yet more efficient and accurate. After the meeting, everyone walked down to the beach to eat dinner. We ate lasagna that Casey provided and it was amazing. Casey also gave the Marine 2 guys a graduating present of a brand new Sea Life waterproof diving camera so I am very thankful for the Dive BVI staff and Casey and Jeff. I cannot wait until tomorrow to dive and work on our project.
