Location: British Virgin Islands
Typically, when it is my turn to be skipper, I sit here and reflect on the highlights of the day. Today is a different story–it was all a highlight. Today was a really awesome day (not that every day isn’t awesome in its own way). We started off with an earlier wake-up than we expected. Poor Will was given some abuse since he had to wake everyone up. Once we woke up a little bit, it was a good-natured day. We arrived at The Baths in the morning, and it has to be one of the most beautiful places in the BVIs. It has a bunch of intertwined caves that lead to an excellent beach. Oh yeah, Victoria’s Secret supposedly shoots some of their photography there. Once we enjoyed The Baths, we went back to the boat because the day was just beginning. We got Ocean Star ready to motor on to our next stop, and we dropped our anchor again. This time, it was for the dive of the H.M.S. Rhone, which was a mail ship from the 1800s that tried to avoid a hurricane and smashed the hull of the boat. The boat started to take on the water right next to the engine, which then exploded, and the ship broke in two. We split up into two groups and went for a spectacular 30-minute dive. Dive Group 1, which I was in, saw two massive lobsters, a barracuda, and a pretty big octopus. Then, we swam around the stern of the vessel and did a few swim-throughs. Dom found the lucky porthole that, according to what we were told, if you rubbed it, it would bring you luck. Also, Bridget spotted a sea turtle and pointed it out to the group. After this really cool dive, we lifted the anchor again and moored at Peter Island, where we will be doing our exams.