Today was our last full day on the island and unfortunately we could not dive because we needed one day between diving and flying or else we might get the bends. However we still started our day early in the morning as usual. Our project for the day was to pick up pieces of a beached yacht as a community service project. The yacht had lost its anchor in a storm and washed inshore a while ago. It had been broken down and smashed to the point that it was completely unrecognizable as a boat. If it weren’t for the life vests and pumps and such that we found it may have looked like pieces of a building. Because the BVI government does not have the man power to enforce its regulations, the company that owns the boat did not have to pay to remove the debris. In order to get to the beach, we drove out to the marina near it and then snorkeled around 15 minutes to it. When we got there we realized that it would be very difficult to clear the debris. The shoreline was rocky and slippery which made walking difficult, especially when we were carrying heavy pieces of boat. Dive BVI had brought its smaller outboard boat, the Sea Fox, and was using it to tow a raft. The raft was essentially a 15′ by 6′ wooden deck floating on rectangular pontoons. The problem was that the pontoons were not secured to the bottom and were only held in place by the weight of the dock. When the raft was blown into the rocks a few of the floats worked their way out from under the dock. We collected debris from the shoreline into a single pile and put all the small stuff into black trash bags. Then we formed a bucket line and loaded everything we could onto the raft. We weren’t able to pick up everything so we loaded up the raft until we could fit nothing else on to it and swam it back out to the boat. We met the boat back at the marina, unloaded it, showered quickly with the hose at the marina, and went to lunch at the Bath and Turtle. After lunch we went back to Guavaberry. The rest of the afternoon was free time so everyone walked down to the beach. I played frisbee with doc and a few of the guys on the cool and along the water line. After getting fed up with bad passes and too many missed catches, doc instituted a new rule. If anyone threw a terrible pass or missed an easy catch they had to swim to “the rock” and back before they could rejoin the game. The rock was about 75 yards off shore near the edge of the swim zone so it was good incentive to not miss. I had to swim twice which was no fun but someone had to swim six times. When everyone was tired we went back to the casas to get ready for dinner. We had dinner at a restraint called Mermaid’s Grill. The restraint is completely over the water and we ate on the second floor. We had a perfect view of the gorgeous sunset and the food was delicious. The best part, however, were the tarpon. Half a dozen or more four foot tarpon gathered in the water by where we were eating along with some jacks and other fish. When anyone had bones leftover from ribs and chicken we threw them in the water for the tarpon. They ate them as if they were huge deadly top predator koi fish. We watched a great montage made by Casey and some students spoke to thank the BVI staff and teachers for an unforgettable week and then we returned to Guavaberry to pack for the flight home early the next day.
