Leaving the burdens of travel behind, we began our first day in the BVI. Beginning with getting our equipment, notably better than any piece of equipment I’ve ever used, we garnered instructions from our dive masters. We then departed to our first dive site, George Dog Island for our first dive of the trip. During the trip over we got further acquainted with our gear, received more instructions, I was able to enjoy the scenery in full daylight, admiring how amazing each little island was. Along with the islands we saw multiple sea turtles along our trip. My dive group departed off the boat without any problems, not including the occasional blast of gas from a sensitive regulator. Personally I kept track both Wills in the group, Name and my brother, and all three of us made sure the buddy checks went smoothly before getting in the water. After, we descended to the sandy bottom at ~25ft. for our checkout dive. During the beginning of the dive, we preformed the drills necessary to demonstrate our abilities with our divemaster, Beth. After we finished our drills, we observed the nearby reef systems and were able to spot multiple species including several tangs and a spotted eel. When we finished at the reef we ascended and did our safety stop. After moving our equipment to a new tank, we proceeded to the next dive site, Coral Gardens. During this dive I worked more on finding my neutral buoyancy, with the added bonus of each group going through a plane sunk around 1997, closely similar to the one we flew to the island in. During this dive we saw some stag coral, a moon jelly, and a few parrotfish. The whole experience, one I haven’t felt in multiple years was surreal, with 40ft. of water over your head and the teeming wildlife right within arms reach. After coming back to Guavaberry and getting rid of most of our carried gear from earlier in the day, we headed to The Baths to traverse the rocks and snorkel back to Guavaberry. Throughout our endeavor through the rocks I was able to glean some history about the origin of the name, whether it originated from pirates and their tall tales or the cleaning of slaves that had arrived to the island. We were also able to take note of the different types of rock from the bathysphere and the gasses compressed in the boulders. I also learned about indigenous trees that were once used for making life-preservers. After being able to remove sand from our shoes and swim around for a bit, we headed our for the snorkel while keeping a close proximity to our dive buddies. During our snorkel, I saw lots of urchins, tangs, a ray, and both a Juvenile and Adult trunkfish. I also was able to view a some elk horn corals and the multitude of fish species that gravitated around it. Concluding the day we all cleaned up and headed to the beach for dinner, consisting of amazing lasagna made by Casey accompanied by great punch. After dinner a few people owned up to their left behind items and imitated Beyonce’s Single Ladies on the beach. One of the most amazing surprises recently has been the simple gift of being able to see the night sky clearly for the first time in a long while of living in the city. Today has been the perfect intro. day to the BVI and I can’t wait for what tomorrow has in store.
