Island Times Blog

By Audrey G., SeaTrek BVI FATHOMS student

Our first activity of the day was a hike at The Baths, a famous BVI location. We had to pull up our anchor by hand, and even though our FATHOMS lead Anna did most of it, we all still enjoyed the thrill. We finally made it to The Baths. We got a dinghy ride to the beach and hiked through lots of boulders. Kaitlin, the main program lead biologist, taught us all about the various kinds of rocks and erosion we could find there! Audrey, Gordon, and Sarah setup jumping rock, a big rock that we got to climb up with a rope and jump off. Almost everyone from the boat got to jump off and it was super fun. After we made it back to the boat, we realized the power was completely out on the boat, meaning Capt. Andy had to put his classic navigation skills to the test and chart our courses for the day. He used the boats built-in compass and various charts and tools to bring us safely to our next location.

We had a quick snack of PB&J’s and then we got to dive the Aquarium, a super cool dive site that used to be an underwater aquarium before the hurricane. Nico led our dive and we all saw so many cool fish and coral, and even a nurse shark!! We all completed a Reef Fish ID and got to practice our underwater signals for various sea creatures. After that we made our way to port at the Moorings, which is kind of our home base at SeaTrek. The bar was open and we all enjoyed virgin pina coladas, shirley temples, and ice cold water. And, even better, when we got back to the boat, everything was fixed!! Anna cooked us a delicious late lunch of posole, and we all got to hang out together before dinner. Capt. Bucky and Leilani cooked the whole camp burgers on the dock for dinner, so we all grabbed food and bonded on the hard top over our yummy meal. Then, we got to teach one of the other boats all about Reef Fish ID and how fun it is. They all enjoyed it so much and we loved teaching them about one of our favorite activities!! We had a special dessert of pudding and cookies, which everyone finished very quickly. Since we are in port, we got to have dock showers tonight, which was basically a big shower party with all the other docks. The staff set up a shower head in between all the boats and we all had lots of fun finally getting a freshwater shower. Finally, we got ready for bed! Tomorrow is Will’s birthday, which we are all very excited for!! We will update tomorrow about our birthday celebrations and the exciting adventures we have planned.

Since we are REEF fish identification experts, we got to help teach REEF fish ID to main program students today, and we also taught them the dive signals for each fish so they can communicate underwater better.

A nighttime chat on the hardtop about FATHOMS, school, home, and everything in between.