Today was our breakfast day. We had to wake up earlier than normal and set up a table with all the cereals, yogurts, and bagels. It went well with everyone getting enough food. After everyone was well fed, we head out to the yacht club in Glen’s huge taxi. When we got there we had to do push-ups and jumping jacks for two people leaving their goggles on the boat. They weren’t that hard except for the fact an ex-marine, Ben, was counting for us. Once we got in the boat we started on our way to The Rhone. This was going to be our deepest dive yet. It was a wrecked ship which was named ‘unsinkable’, just like the Titanic. It was 300 feet long and 40 feet across. It was an R.M.S (Royal Mail Steamer) so it would go to the B.V.I.s then to the Americas and trade goods. It also carried 130 first class passengers, 30 second class passenger, and 30 third class passengers. A first class passenger would have to pay 40 pounds for a trip, which is equivalent to 5 thousand dollars. After two boats were named unsinkable, and both sunk, no one named another boat unsinkable. When we got there they showed us where we were going to be diving for the first dive. It was about 60ft down so it was going to be a shorter dive, about 30 minutes. When we went down we went straight to the wreck and it was incredible. It was an official ‘dive park’ so no one could fish or collect anything so there was an abundance of sea life. We swam around the crows nest, the foremast, and the tool section of the boat. We also saw an enormous lobster hiding under a little cove. It could’ve fed a family for weeks. In addition, we also saw a really big snapper and a he amount of colorful schools of fish. About halfway through the dive we swam through the Bow section. It was a tight squeeze and very dark. There were a lot of fish within the boat along with a big barracuda. After the first dive we got up to the boat and that is when we learned the history of the boat. In October of 1867, the Rhone was in the BVIs with its sister boat. It was nearing the end of the hurricane season and there was light weather so crew didn’t think anything of it. It eventually grew to a full on hurricane and the Rhone had to cut the anchor from the cove it was trying to take cover in and try to get to open ocean. The crew tied all the passengers to their beds so they wouldn’t get in the way of the crew, while they were fighting this storm. This is where the phrase ‘sleep tight’ came from. So Captain Wooley tried to get out into the open during what he thought was the storm passing, which was actually the eye of the storm. While they were dodging all the islands and rocks Willy thought he was well past the islands until a crew member yelled, “land starboard”. He went to look and, unfortunately, one of the 40 foot waves came and swept him overboard. No one found his body, only his epaulettes. When they crashed into land only 1 passenger and 21 crew members survived by various ways. After the great story from Becca, we went in for our second dive. We were going to be looking at the stern part of the boat on this dive which would last longer because of a shorter depth. On this dive we saw a seahorse, a big stingray, Willy’s spoon and his rum, and the steel beams of the ship. We also came up on the window where the only passenger survived from. He was Italian so everyone that goes by rubs the window three times clockwise and wishes for three Italian things. Hopefully mine come true. After our second, and last dive of the trip, we went to Cooper Island for lunch which was a private resort a couple islands over from ours. I had a mahi mahi wrap. It was very good. We went snorkeling right after lunch a little ways off of Cooper Island. We saw a lot of turtles, barracuda, sting rays, and a lot of Tarpon. The tarpon were really big. Beth told us they are from the Dinosaur era and they can also survive a nuclear blast because they have developed the ability to also breath air. The tarpon we saw just sat there because of very, very old age. Once we got back to the boat we went back to our island through a lot of waves which got everyone wet, again. We had mass at 5:30 and it was on the top of a hill over looking the ocean and the town. After mass we went back down to the beach and had burgers and hot dogs made by Jeff. We went on a night dive after dinner and we saw a ton of sand. We did get to see an octopus and a squid. We also experimented with bioluminescence, which was very cool. After the night dive we had the long, sandy walk back up to the cabins to shower up and go to sleep.
Tomorrow I am looking forward to showing the staff and teachers what we learned and our projects. I also am looking forward to a full beach day, after we present.
