We started off the day with breakfast buffet at the Plum cabin with cereal, honey buns, and yogurt. It was pretty good food and it filled me up, even though we have been having the same breakfast for the past week. After breakfast, Mr. Marr told us that the waves were going to be really choppy, so Teddy, Lucas, and I took some Dramamine so we wouldn’t get sea sick, probably not the best idea because we were basically tired the whole day. The plan for this morning was suppose to be two dives swimming to the Rhone ship that sunk in the late 1800s but the waves were to choppy to dive in so we had to wait and go do a different dive. Casey gave us two options to choose from: another sicken boat or the steps where we saw the coral reef sharks. We all agreed to go to the steps because of how cool it was last time with the sharks. It was a little of a disappointment because we only saw a couple of sharks and they didn’t really get close to us, although we saw very large crabs and barracudas. After the first dive, went back to the Rhone to see if it was alright to dive, and it was. Casey told us a lot of history behind the Rhone and I learned a lot of interesting facts about it. I learned that it sunk during a hurricane, more than 300 passengers died, all 22 crew members survived and 1 passenger, and a big wave hit the ship and part of it hit a huge rock and blew up half the ship. The dive was really cool because Casey took us through the ship and we got to see the inside of it and we saw all of the fish and coral reefs living around and on it. There could be benefits and hazards to the ocean with ships sinking in the ocean. For example, a benefit for ships sinking is that it gives fish a habitat to live in were they can eat the algae and it lets coral reefs be able to grow all around the ships. A hazard it could give the ocean is that the ship when it sinks could release chemicals or oil into the ocean and it can harm the ocean life and the inhabitants living in it.
After the dive we went to Cooper Island to eat lunch and to shop around for a little. The island is awesome and beautiful and the water looks amazing. The lunch I had was great and delicious, I had Conch with fries and it filled me up right away. Afterwards we went to go shop and I was thinking their would be a lot of shops, but there was only one and it was kind of expensive, so I decided not to get anything.
The last thing we did for the day was snorkel around Cooper Island. Casey told us about sea grass and what it does and how it helps the ocean. I learned the sea grass feeds the fish, most important sea turtles. Also I learned that the sea grass gives protection for fish and sea creatures from other predators. Overall, today I learned a lot of interesting facts about the BVI’s artifacts and BVI’s ocean and inhabitants.
