2015 Week 2

Breakfast was supposed to be hosted by my cabin this morning, key word "supposed". Two of the 3 of my cabin-mates had gotten sick the night before, leaving Doc and Mr. Von with the decision to move breakfast from our cabin to theirs to prevent anybody else from getting sick. In the end, both got well and nobody else...

Today we were split from the Marine 2 group. While they went off to a place called Necker Island. The rest of us stayed behind to study invertebrates and (try) to tag some turtles. First, we went snorkeling on a beach to catch and study some invertebrates. We caught a fire worm, a centipede-like creature that shot stinging needles,...

Today has left me completely exhausted after a long day of diving down to the Rhone shipwreck, snorkeling around Cooper Island, and attempting my group's project during the night snorkel. At the surface of the Rhone shipwreck, massive waves rocked the boat, making everybody a little queezy in the stomach. However, once down under, the sight of the ship...

Today's breakfast was one of the best we've had so far. Not only were we the cabin that served it, but Casey brought an extra surprise: donuts! It was the most delicious breakfast yet. For the last full day, we snorkeled from the marina to a rocky shore were a huge pile of debris from a ship had pilled...

The final full day in Virgin Gorda had started at bit later, precisely thirty minutes of extra sleep. After an amazing breakfast of massive donuts and juice, we headed toward the harbor in order to snorkel to the site of a previous shipwreck where the debris had been piled up on the shore. After getting to the area our...

Day 4: Today, we split from the marine 2 students and went to Savannah beach while they enjoyed special time at Neckar Island, where we will go next year. We first collected invertebrates like, Cabbage Worms, Fire Worms, Sea Urchins, and Crabs. We got to play with them in a touch tank that we set up. We then released them...

Today we spent a lot of time working on our projects. Our first dive involved us observing a very healthy reef, where we saw some very territorial schooling sergeant majors. We then went to a less healthier reef on our second dive, where we saw a lot of tiny yellow wrass. What we noticed in this project was that...

Today, our first dives of the week took place at the Dog Islands, particularly George Dog Island. We were told that their name stems from the Caribbean monk seals who's call was mistaken for the barking of rabid dogs by Columbus's crew, making them avoid the islands. Many years later, Pirates sailing through also heard the dogs, and thought...

Today fulfilled a few lifelong goals of mine, to swim with sharks and to watch fire dancers up close. We did our first dive at site called "Ginger Steps". The geography of the slope under the water forms giant steps, hence the name. As soon as we took the giant stride method into the water there were almost immediately...