Our second day here in the BVI began at Limetree cabin with breakfast provided by David, Aiden, Gordon, and Adam. After breakfast we headed down to the marina to begin our second day of diving. We took a pretty lengthy boat ride to Gaz’s favorite dive site in the BVI, the Ginger Steps. Before the dive, Gaz explained to us how this area usually has eagle rays and sharks all over the place, and immediately after entering the water the sharks began to show up. Gaz told us that divers used to feed lion fish to the Sharks in this area and this has made the Sharks very comfortable with humans. This dive was unique because the currents bring a lot of nutrients through the water so the amount of juvenile sea life and coral was much greater. Throughout the dive, Becca pointed out several schools of fish she referred to as “nurseries” because they were almost completely juvenile fish. We also saw some pretty large crustaceans like a Spiny Lobster and Pistol Shrimp. The next dive took us to the other side of Ginger Island and was called Ginger Back. This was a much more shallow dive, only about 40 feet maximum. This dive site also served as a nursery for the juvenile fish, who used the staghorn coral as cover from predators. Throughout the dive, a school of Southern Sennets followed my dive group and from time to time would swarm all around us. After the dive, we taxied back to Guavaberry Beach and had lunch before relaxing on the beach and throwing the frisbee. Eventually Casey and her dive staff set up the Beach Games, which consisted of a relay race, water ballon dodge ball, pictionary, and a blind relay race. My team, named the Sugar Cookies, took first place in every event except for one, which we placed second in. After finishing the Beach Games, we showered up and attended mass at the top of the hill. When mass ended we taxied to the Restaurant at the Top of the Baths where Casey presented all the Marine Biology 2 students with graduation presents after dinner. She gave us all underwater cameras to use during the week and keep after. After dinner we all were entertained by a group of fire dancers who somehow managed to not singe their eyebrows off. The day ha concluded with a nice walk back to Guavaberry.
