Before eating a hearty breakfast of Honey Buns and eggs, we were awoken at around 6:45 by our first views of Virgin Gorda. We went out onto the boat and left promptly for our first dive of the trip at around 9:30. Although just the first dive of the trip, I got to touch up on some basic dive skills before seeing a small reef. The location of the small reef was in a fairly strong current off of George Island so my group; Owen, Parker, and Connor; got to experience diving against a current for the first time. Upon resurfacing, we travelled to our second dive location called Chimney because of its unique rock formations underneath the water. Our surface interval was spent jumping off the second deck into the water, and then we were ready for our second dive. The dive site was shaped like a tiny canyon, and we travelled through what would’ve been it’s valley. The walls were filled with all large pockets of elkhorn, staghorn, and Brain coral with pockets of sponges here and there. Throughout the reef there were many different species of fish including princess parrotfish, squirrel fish, and tobacco fish. We also saw a couple arrow crabs scattered throughout the canyon. On the second dive, we travelled in a hole in the rock and saw a large arrow crab. After the dives, we returned and planned for our dive projects before heading out to Mass. Mass was held in a small church on the top of a small mountain. They were amazing views of a sunset over the bay of Virgin Gorda. To end the day, the entire team walked down to the beach and watched the peaceful Caribbean sunset. My group learned that we would not be able to to have a tracer dye to test the water flow process of the sponges, but we’re going to try food coloring. Today I got to experience my first open water dive and learned what that was like. I’m really looking forward to getting started on our project and see how that goes.
