Here and Gone....

I have left Tortola as of 230 this afternoon. The time went by so fast that I can't believe I was there for an entire month! My last night, about 10 of us got together at the Cyber Cafe in Trellis Bay for one last hoorah, and my was that a good idea for a place to go! Kudos to Ria for thinking of it. Good food (Mahi mahi Roti... yum), nice drinks, and awesome company, what else can one ask for?

Tom took me to town so I could get the ferry to St. Thomas today and on the way there we drove past Matko who had been on Virgin Gorda for the week, so he turned around and helped me kill time after getting dropped off at the terminal (Tom had other business to attend to, haha), so we went and had lunch at some italian place right across from the Ferry. and it was DELICIOUS! I managed to find myself a BVI flag at the last possible moment, and caught the ferry only minutes before it was about to leave.

So now, here I am in St. Thomas in a killer hotel room! King size bed, right on the beach, literally, like... 20 feet away. I can hear the waves quietly breaking, and I am in the right spot to catch the sunset. I am going to treat myself to a really nice long hot shower (as my hot water has been down for the last week-ish), and a nice fancy schmancy dinner at the restaurant here. Then... bedtime and up early to catch my flight and begin my long 18 hours of travel back to some other rocks in the middle of nowhere.

As a footnote, id like to add: If any of you are looking at this because of the link on SCD website and are wondering to yourself whether or not you should do this internship. Do it. You are somewhere new doing something different, and the people won't disappoint.

Parties, Diving, and Evacuation of roomates...

So its been a fair few days since i have updated this thing. But ive been busy diving, and having an overall good time. A couple of nights this past week Matko, Steve and I stayed up watching the Lord of the Rings movies then I was getting up and going diving with Ze Germans (some friends of Dale and Harri two of the staffies) or mapping. My day off on Monday was spent with Ria and Steve trying to go diving and getting caught in a raging downpour, our dive ending up having about 10 feet of viz, and us loosing Ria somewhere in the dive... in other words, lots of fun! Actually it wasnt too bad, I didnt mind the boat ride, and we were diving so we were already wet, so not really a big deal having it raining. A couple of nights ago was Megan (another staff members birthday) so we all went to the bar to have some drinks and had a fabulous time. I managed to get my camera to some other people so they could take pictures for me because I knew I probably wouldnt take many, and I got a number of fabulous shots, too many to post up here, hahaha. I am supposed to put in a word or two about Neil, he told me I was supposed to write something about him, so here it is. And thats all iwrote, hah. In any case, a wall party is calling, and I must go. Enjoy the pictures! There is a fabulous view of most of the island and surrounding ones from Toms house, panorama style.

Unfortunately my roomie, my broken roomie, has changed her flight to leave tomorrow, so I will be alone in my room for the next couple of nights until I head out. Oh how time flies! It deffinately does not feel like i have been here that long. Oh well, c'est la vie.

NUDI! WHOOOOHOOOOO!! And clean-up day!

So not much going on. Yesterday was Clean-Up day and i was dubbed photographer. Fun for the most part, bunch of kids running around and then a bunch of divers.... well running around. Take a look at the photos.

Today was fun diving for Anna because I had a day off. So I went on Discovery (36') with Ria and we just puttered around really slowly, taking pictures. In addition, I found my first British Virgin Island Nudibranchs!! It is a 'Lettuce Leaf Nudibranch' and i found not one, but TWO of these fabulous creatures... so naturally it made my day. Saw lots of other stuff, including a mystery hamlet, tiny yellow goby that i havent looked up yet, a little hawksbill sea turtle, and other stuff. Yay! Tomorrow if the weather clears a bit more fun diving, if not... time to take out my book and read or somethin... woot woot. Anyways, take a look at the photos!

Fireballs, More mapping, and a day off.... woot woot.

Ok so since the last update, I have working hard and hardly working at the same time. For bits of the day I have been stuck in the shop cleaning retail and shelves, wiping away dust that has been sitting on the shelves far too long to be good. And as many of you know... I really don't do cleaning... hahaha. But in any case, past the cleaning I have gotten to do alot of mapping of dive sites around the islands, most in places rarely visited by the shop, especially on the north side of the island cuz its calm in the summer months. So thats been awesome, I think I have mapped probably 3 or 4 sites since I last wrote anything here, but no 'fun diving' so no pictures... sorry! Well, no pictures of diving. But pictures of other random daily activities that I have been doing.





On the 15th, we had a full moon, and here on Tortola that means a party... unfortunately since its the slow season, it wasnt as hopping as usual apparently. But it was a good time nonetheless. You pay 20 bucks and you get as much food as you want, including sooooo much stuff that you cant really fit seconds: mac/cheese, potatoes, bbq chicken, jerk chicken, rice, pork, curry goat, cole slaw, and salad. Wow. lots. they also had drinks (which were extra) and ice cream (also extra). I got away with two free drinks and alot of mosquito bites. The fireball part of the party was basically they have alot of metal shaped things filled with wood that they light on fire... unfortunately they didnt soak the wood in kerosine for nearly long enough so they didnt really stay lit... until they doused one so much that it eventually caught for a brief time. Thats when I took a picture.





In addition to the fireball magic that was going on, one of the staff here, Rob (who is also my 'Mentor' for my internship) played rave with some flaming fireballs and made for some great pictures... luckily he didnt catch himself on fire that night, which apparently has happened before.

The day before yesterday was my day off! Woop woop, so three of the other staff (Neil, Matko, and Tom) and I went to go sailing. We got into the RIB, which needed to be charged a little before we left to get it started and headed out with crazy Tom driving. Maybe about 5 minutes after takeoff, right outside the channel, Tom hit the key with his knee and knocked the ignition off... and stranded us... with Tom with his paddle and me with one of my freediving fins we kept ourselves off of the reef while Harri came to rescue us and tow us back to the dock so we could get recharged and leave again (carefully without hitting the key)... we got to the harbor without incident and found the boat.








Unfortunately once we got to the sail boat, the owner (the guy who runs this joint) called us on teh phone from afar and said that we couldnt take it sailing really because the insurance hadn't gone through yet. But he still wanted us to move it from one harbor to another. Which in the end was fine because there wasn't much wind so we motored most of the way. Once back, two of the previous three staff (Neil and Matko) and I went to go snorkeling on the north side and then get a nice bite to eat... we ended up getting sidetracked and going hiking on Mt. Sage; we got to the highest point in the BVIs. Whoooowieee... then we went down to Cane Garden Bay and had lunch/dinner and then drove back to base. It was a good day, though there were alot of mosquitoes on the mountains, and they all just love my tasty Hawaii flavoured blood.




Then yesterday, more mapping! We went all the way to Tobago (no not Trinidad and Tobago, just Tobago) which is the farthest of the BVIs. We did two dives, not great viz, but thats ok cuz nobody has really gone there much ever before, so it was great to get to go! Then we went to Jost Van Dyke to get lunch and then after lunch we got in the boat itching to get going for our third dive when, klunk. Engine doesn't start. NOOO!!! So we sat trying to get it fixed, calling and calling everyone on base or Cooper Island, etc etc... eventually we got ahold of the main boat man Steve and he tried to talk us throught starting it up and looking and what the problems might be when Dale with the magic touch got it started. Unfortunately we didn't get to do our third dive since we got going from Jost so late.

Today just work cleaning the 46' and crewing for training. Such is the life of a SCD intern. Enjoy the pics.

Training, running around, and making new friends... eight legged ones...

Yesterday found me coming in and being assigned to "Retail Cleaning" duties with Ria... fortunately, or maybe not so fortunately, Tom asked if i could help him with errands, and Steve asked me to clean off the anchor chain and then splice a line with a metal eye for the anchor to attach to the chain. So Tom and I ran errands in town, including going to the Moorings/Sunsail which is a sailing company that rents out boats to really rich or well endowed (or maybe just people that know how to save their pennies) and pawning off diving services and brochures to unknowing tourists. Lots of fun.... mmmmm. maybe. Anyways, after that, we picked up my roomate Claudia and then it was my turn to follow her around the store with the shopping cart while she threw food in it. In the end i ended up spending a bit of money on food myself, so it wasnt all pointless...

Then, it was back to basecamp where I was supposed to crew on the 46' while some of hte other staff were doing training... but there was no training. so i spliced line. and did a right good job of it too i might add, considering it was the first time i had to do it with the metal eye piece. And on the first try too... HAH! Take that! Then, much to my surprise, I got to go on boat training myself on the 26'! Weeeeee so much fun... tho i think the 26' needs to have 2 engines so we can go super fast and make super sharp turns and have lots and lots of speedy fun. But it was good anyways.

Today I had the morning free, so I had the opportunity to go "fun diving" Weeeeeeeeeee!! The thing about fun diving is that it is the only time you are allowed to take your camera... so take it I did... got some ok shots too, but spent too much time my first dive (Carvel Rock) looking for nudibranchs, and much to my chagrin, finding none. They are few and far between here apparently, and no one really sees much of them. They are a mystery..... ahh, one i intend to solve before i leave, muahaha. But the second dive (Ginger Steps) was much better in that i decided that if the nudi's wanted me to see them they would show me where they were, so i stopped looking so hard and had a rather enjoyable dive. I would like to do this one as a first dive and give me more bottom time as you can get pretty deep if you want to (at least for around here). where's waldo in the next one??

We drove back to the shop and dropped off the customer and two crew and Neil and I headed to Cooper to get lunch before we had to go out mapping... and guess who got to drive. Uh-huh thats right, yours truely. About 10 minutes into the drive over there, however, we got called back to the shop to pick up customers that showed up that wanted a ride out to cooper.... argh. so we had to turn back to go pick them up. but i must admit, i did a rather excellent job of parking that puppy (the boat...) at the docks when we came in. Out to Cooper we went and met up with Matko to eat. Conch fritters and fries.... mmmmmmmmm.... and a little piece of carrot cake. my kind of lunch.

Unfortunately for Neil, he got a splitting headache during lunch and so called the mapping dive. I walked along the dock as he rested with Matko looking to see if we could see anything cool and we spotted an octopus in about 3 feet of water! AH! So, of course, I grabbed my fins, mask, and snorkel and went to take pictures of this bad boy... and to catch him and play!!

To start: I must say that this octopus was very unlike those we find in Hawaii... first of all, it was in the sand. Squished down there just lying on the ground. And i could get really close and touch it and it wouldnt move, wouldnt take off, change color, nothing. Then with Matko watching from the dock, I decided to catch him. All of you O'ahu-ans that are divers know how much our Hawaiian octopus ink... well... this little guy just gave me a little squirt and that was it. No more. And he just sat contentedly in my hand and then attached himself to my rash guard. and just sat there... a very cute and very friendly little bloke. The other small little thing is that, again unlike O'ahu, octopi are not commonly seen (or caught, haha)

I was sorry to let him go, but I figured it was time so i sent him on his merry little way back into the sand and went on my merry little way and went snorkeling around the dock for a while looking for seahorses which apparently live around the mooring fields at Cooper. I didnt see any, but I managed to run into a barracuda while freediving down to take a closer look at the seagrass... evil looking guys them cudas, but what can you do...all fish cant all be pretty.

Sushi night and painting signs and DrIvInG BoAtS!

I'll try to make this one alot shorter than the last. heres hoping.

So, yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to go over to cooper island again. Seeing as my day 2 cooper trainer was the manager of the cooper shop, we ended up doing quite a bit more than sitting on the hammock and shootin the breeze like last time i was out there seeing as a) i was with cooper manager, and b) he has full use of both his legs. My project was repainting the bulletin board- and we all know how much anna loves to paint and get it all over herself. So that amused me for a bit and then the dive boat stopped bvy the island and we all went and got some food... and let me tell you, the best part about working cooper is that you get $5 lunch and free beverages. So Jerk chicken wrap it was and boy was it tastey. After lunch we spent some time trying to scrape paint of the compressor frame, sweated our butts off, and i got bit by looooooads of mosquitoes, even after lathering myself with deet filled repellant every 10 minutes or so. But in addition to all that amazing fun we had, I also learned how to tie a knot called a monkey fist as well as how to splice line. So fuuuunnnn...

Then last night i was invited out for girls night which was to SUSHI!!!! AAAAAAAAAH!! Sushi nights every thursday apparently and i really hope we go every thursday, tho after splitting the tab for teh two 1.5 litre bottles of Pinot Grigio, the price was a little expensive... but it was so worth it. We had so much fun, the girls here are amazing. There were only five of us there, but we stayed from like 730 until past midnight just chatting and hanging out. Famously good time.

Today in the AM i got to help clean up parts of one of the boats... again with the scraping off of paint, as well as caulking, rust, putting lights on the life jackets, etc. But the afternoon was much more fun filled and dive filled (aren't they the same thing?) We went dive mapping! woot woot. Mapped a site called "Dry Rocks East" saw two turtles, 3 moray, bunches and bunches of little gobies and big jacks. Aaaaaaaaawesome dive site. Goes round an outcropping of rocks. The ball is in about 40 or so feet of water and as you go around and off to the side to see a memorial thats out there, you can get down to 90 or so feet... then if you go back to teh main part and keep going around you get up to about 15' at the tip and then back around to the ball. Lots of fun! Was hoping for a sharkie along the deeper sections, but he/she decided not to make an appearance. Oh well. Thats all for now.

In addition to the mapping though, I got to DRIVE the 26' boat. It was fun! Easier than i was expecting, haha, dont knw why i was expecting it to be difficult. But i got to de-dock it, dock it, drive it to and from the site and to cooper to pick up ria. So fun! ahhhhhhhhh....

Tomorrow i get to help clean shopa little bit and then go out on the 46' as crew. Weeeeeeeee. Til we meet again.

Chickens, Dive Mapping, Gift Baskets, and Nocturnal Adventures

I dont know if I mentioned it on previous occasions, but there are a bunch of chickens and at least two roosters running around this place. Additionally there are three little chicks that wander around chirping away with their ever watchful constantly mother chasing after them. I thought I should explain this as I am putting up a picture of said hen with her chickies.

So, the yesterday found me aboard one of our smaller boats (one of the two 26' boats) named Atlantis with one of the other employees and guiding two certified divers! If it was going to be the two of us and the divers I was going to be perfectly fine, but apparently they had in mind that I was going to lead the dive alone, as the other person had to stay on the boat as surface support. Obviously, as I have only just gotten here and had only gone diving 3 times, and none of them at this specific site, I was a little apprehensive, but once I got instructions from the staff, I was ready to get going... but 8:00... no customers... 8:30... no customers. Atlantis had to leave the harbour and take people across to Cooper Island (where there is another shop), so no leading a dive for Anna...

Instead of diving, I got adopted by Ria in the base shop on Tortola to help as manpower completely rearranging the shop. We moved things here there and everywhere, occasionally putting things back where they were originally, and other times moving them somewhere else completely. About a third of the way through the day, however, Mike L (who was going to the airport later that day) came to me with a very very important mission... to make some gift baskets for people hes trying to keep happy... you know, like immigration, that kind of thing. So off to the store we went! He dropped me off at OneMart a.k.a. K-Marx or some such, with a blank check with no budget and 30 minutes. About 40 minutes and $217.71 later, we left the store with lots of food, soaps and candles to make 5 tastily delicious gift baskets of varying sizes. I must admit they did look spectacular and I would be very happy indeed to receive such a giftbasket.

After making said baskets and then eating a spectacular lunch of Kraft easy mac (which i bought at the grocery store while there... i mean, why not do a little shopping myself since i was there, right?) I was off again, to go for a dive, this time to do some dive mapping...

So for a little background, there are no recent or even decent books about diving in the British Virgin Islands. There is one that was published about 15 or so years ago that has some amazing site briefings such as "Good luck finding the anchor"... so needless to say, the islands are lacking in a good dive site reference book. So, the people at the shop, are in the process of trying to put one together containing a ton of sites throughout the BVIs. Fortunately, I came and the most opportune time, as it is slow season, so not alot of tourists, but additionally because I get to help map some of the sites for this book. Which means we not only get to go diving without customers, but we get to go to sites that are not often visited during the busy season.

So, to continue on in my tale, I got to go dive mapping that afternoon. We ended up having to go to a shallow site because there was an open water student doing OW dive 1. So to Dead Chest North we went. And the site was spectacular! Corals everywhere, and Elkhorn Corals too, which arent too common. Lots and lots of fish, and a nice school of Southern Sennet. Unfortunately, I kept running out of room on my slate for my mapping, and having to move to the other side of the slate, or under where i started and in the end making an amazingly messy and uncomprehensible dive map, at least on the slate. After a redrawing of it, with what information i actually understood from it, it didnt look that shabby... maybe a little sparce, but the site was so awesome, and I had never dove there before, which made it a bit more challenging.

Moving on. So there are two things about sleeping in the BVIs that I have not yet been able to handle with alot of grace. One is the constant turning on and off of the a/c by my roomie. The other is the incessant buzzing of the mosquitos in your ears while you are trying to get some zzz's. I can deal with the a/c problem, but these mosquitos know the meaning of cruel and unusual punishment. In any case, last night was no different with the mosquitos; however, a lightening storm was moving through and the power got cut off for about 2 hours. In these two hours, the a/c wasnt going on and off and on again which was nice. I had my computer so I watched a movie and played a number of games on my computer and discovered how very very aweful at chess i really am having the computer beat me in really easy mode. Eventually the electricity went back on, and my roomie went to sleep. I went to the bathroom where i could turn the lights on and fill out my dive log with some lumination, and when i went to close the door: the biggest freakin cockroach ive ever seen! It had to have been at least 2.5 inches and his antennae were waving around sensing me in the room. I tried to get a big pitcher and capture him in it but every time i came close he scuttled his way out of the dangerzone, eventually launching himself at me with a flutter of his 'wings'. I managed to knock it into the tub, so i got a water bottle in one hand, and filled the pitcher and held it with the other. i slowly conned him into the tub and then dumped the water all over him hoping to get him down the drain... haha, yeah right! he weaseled his way back to the wall on the other side of the shower area, so i didt this move again, but this time when he was crawling away from teh drain, i thwaped him multiple times with teh water bottle until he was stunned. I then captured it and stuck it outside. And through all of this - with the obvious yelping and swearing on my part - my roomie slept.

Today I got a day off. So guess what I did... I went diving! Haha, no surprise there! One of the other staff members named Steve also had the day off so we went out in his little RIB to a couple of sites on the island which they rarely go to with customers. Shark's Point, though usually not the case, gifted us with the presence of zero sharks. Luckily there was a whole lot of other life around to make up for that, including some little gobies, a barracuda, and some big jacks. We stopped at Cooper island to eat lunch, for who can resist Chicken Roti with fries and mango chutney for the amazing price of $5. Not me. After that, I got to drive the RIB to our next dive site: Blonde Rock. This site, in addition to the amazing reef life and soft corals, also gave us what our previous dive site did not... SHARKS! We saw a Reef Shark -though only the tail end of him swimming away from us- as well as two nurse sharks, both fairly good sized... its possible it was the same nurse shark in two different places as Steve managed to scare it out of its first little hole on accident. Oh well. The current was a little strong, but when going with it, it provided a nice little mini-drift dive. It was the going against part that was the problem. That and diving too soon after eating a huge plate of Chicken Roti and Fries. In any case, tonight there is a little shindig over at Ria and Neils house to watch Boosh (apparently a brit TV show). We'll see how that goes, and if i manage to find my way over there to begin with.

Tomorrow I have another day off, so Ria and I are planning on heading to the West End and getting some grub, maybe trying to spy on another dive shop. We shall see... until then, enjoy living vicariously though me and my pictures, hahaha! tata!