Today was a special day in our marine biology trip. It was the last day of our dives and our cabin made breakfast for everyone.
Today’s events and What I learn
Our cabin, the Lime House, started the day preparing a breakfast consisting of cereal, fruit, yogurt, muffins, bagels, etc. afterwards we headed towards the marina and yet again set out to dive. Today we’re our last two dives for the whole trip. We explored the R.M.S (Royal Mail Steamer) Rhone, a ship that sunk in October of 1867. This means that next year will be the 150th anniversary. The boat sunk because the waves caused it to hit against rocks. Since the ship split into two different parts, our first dive was focused on exploring the bow section of the ship, and we saw the hatch, steel support beams from the ship, the signal cannon, and the foremast and crow’s nest. The hatch was used in a movie called The Deep; the underwater parts of the movie were filmed in the B.V.I’s and everything above water was filmed in the Bahamas. On the this dive we also saw some schools of squirrel fish, and yellow jacks. We also saw a massive lobster, estimated to be around three and a half feet. We also saw a giant snapper. On the second dive, we went to the other half of the ship: the stern section. The stern section had a lucky porthole. Everyone touches it every time they dive here. This is because on the boat, there was only one survivor. An Italian man that was blasted out of his room: room 26. He was the only one that swam to shore in attempts of survival. This is why they say the porthole is lucky. Anyway, we also saw the remains of the Captain Wooley’s spoon and his bottle of rum, both encrusted with coral today. However, the body of Captain Wooley was never found, only his epaulettes. We also saw the gear box of the ship and the wrench set and more steel support beams. Also on our second dive we saw a sea horse. Later after our dives, we went to Cooper island and had lunch. Then we snorkeled around the Cooper island bay. Our group saw many stingrays which were hidden in the sand. We also managed to see a green sea turtle, some very large barracuda, and even some tarpon. The tarpon are from the prehistoric age. Our instructor told us that these fish have evolved so well and so often that they are able to survive a nuclear blast, and even breath air. Afterwards we had some downtime and prepared to go to mass. Mass was located at a church in the top of a large hill. The hill overlooked the entire island. It had some great scenery and it was an amazing sight. After the mass we went to the beach and ate some hotdogs and burgers. Later when it got dark, the group entered the water and we had a night snorkel, where many cool creatures presented themselves. We saw some squids, octopus, lobsters, crabs, shrimp, and brittle stars. We also saw some parrotfish with a mucus wrapping around themselves. This is for protection at night while sleeping. We also saw a bunch of large sea urchins that crawled out of their holes and went out into the open sea floor. After the night snorkel, my group worked on our project.
What I look forward to
I look forward to presenting or project to the instructors and teachers and also playing in the beach while everyone else presents.
