Today was another fun filled adventure packed with a two tank dive and a project night snorkel. The two tank dive was at the RMS Rhone. The Rhone was a UK Royal Mail Ship owned by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. The boat wrecked off the coast of Salt Island in the British Virgin Islands in October 1867 during a hurricane. For the first part of the dive, we descended to about 85 feet. Once at the bottom we immediately saw a Southern Stingray swimming effortlessly in the strong current. After the first dive ended, we had a short surface interval to have the nitrogen leave our bodies. Then we went back down to explore the propeller and boiler of the ship. There, we found Mature Queen Angelfish as well as a Spotted Moray Eel. We then made our way to the surface and made way for Cooper Island, where the best fish and chips are prepared. After lunch we had a short snorkel in the sea grass beds right off of Cooper Island, where Tarpon and Barracuda thrive. Later that day, after we made our way back to Guavaberry, we had dinner on the private beach. After waiting thirty or so minutes, majority of the students began a night snorkel. However I, along with my project group, set out to collect bioluminescent plankton for our experiment. The experiment is finding a relationship between water temperature and reaction times, or the amount of time it takes for the plankton to glow once stimulated. It was not easy. Our original nets to catch the plankton failed completely. We finally collected plankton by dunking an Igloo cooler underwater and rapidly waving our hands until the plankton floated in, brought it to the surface, put the lid on, and destroyed our hamstrings swimming 100 yards back to shore.
