At 6:30 AM sharp my cabin of 5 marine bio 2 guys wake up. The alarm wasn’t what woke up us. It was the roosters outside the Jasmine cabin. The roosters loud and piercing sound probably echoed throughout the entire island of Virgin Gorda, but is acted for me as a pleasant reminder that this place was far different from Dallas. There are no stop lights, concrete sidewalks, bustling city noise, but rather a calm breeze, blazing sun, and turquoise water. After leaving the cabin, we walked to the local restaurant, where the delicious smell of omelets awaited us. There we met our BVI dive masters. Casey, Beth, and Ben were on the Sea Monkey boat and Zoltan, Becca, and Daniel were on the Sea Dragon. The Sea Dragon was the boat my group and I were assigned to and Daniel was my group’s leader. We then took off to the bumpy Seas and went to a place off the coast of George Dog, an island part of the Dog Islands. The history behind the Dog Islands is very interesting. They were named this because English Colonists back in the 15th and 16th centuries decided to avoid these islands since they claimed to hear wild dogs. Wild dogs had been very aggressive towards British Colonists especially in the Canary Islands. In the 17th century Pirates settled on the land discovering that the barking noise was not from dogs but Carribean Monk Seals. Carribean Monk Seals were officially declared extinct in 2002. At this dive site we did a refresher dive going over the basics. We then explored the area and I saw fairy basslets, shrimp, parrotfish, squirrelfish, fire coral and a Moray Eel. The second place we went to dive was called the Chimney. The topography at this site was incredible, one part forming a crevice that resembled a chimney. Jacques Costeau was known for consistently coming to this site simply because of how incredible the place was. After lunch we went to the famous Baths. The baths is a geological wonder filled with hollow rocks that take extremely unique shapes. Back during the slave trade, slave sellers would take slaves to this place to be washed after the long transatlantic voyage. This explains why this place received its name. We snorkeled to the Baths and back. After taking a refreshing and soothing cold shower we all came to the commissary to write our blogs and will head out soon to go eat dinner. It is fantastic to be back in the BVIs for another year and am truly blessed with his once in a lifetime opportunity. I am already assured that this week is going to be an unforgettable experience.
