Sport Diver's Teen Editor Kisses Her Mom Goodbye and Jaunts Off to the BVIs on an ActionQuest Adventure
Beep BEEP BEEEEP!" My alarm rang in my ear. I pried my eyes open
and looked around at the pyramids of clothes surrounding my bed. My
floor was buried in shoes, bags and socks. I was nervous and excited
already; I knew that as soon as I put my feet on the floor I'd have
officially started my adventure for the next three weeks.
I eventually forced myself out of my comfy bed and checked that
everything was in place. Before you know it I heard, "Time for you to
go to the Caribbeannnnn, baby!" It was my mom.
Can you say deja vu? I'm pretty sure those are the exact words my mom
said last summer before I headed out, too. I have to laugh at the
ridiculous things my mom says. It sounds like she's in Vegas, winning
money from a slot machine. I grabbed all my stuff and shoved it into
the car. I was ready to get this show on the road — or should I say,
"Get this show on the ocean."
When I arrived at the airport I hugged my mom bye. Finally, I'm free!
''I was still in the airport and suddenly this guy sitting next to me says, "Hi, I'm Chaz, where are you from?"
"I'm Natalie; I'm from Orlando." "No way, no way," he said.
"Yes way. Why? Where are you from?" I said eagerly.
"I'm from Orlando too!" Chaz said. The first person I become friends
with on a trip is always very important to me, because that's the first
person I'm going to remember when I think of that trip.
When we got off the plane we met with an ActionQuest guide who directed
us onto a bus. I always love the bus ride because you get to see the
island's beauty for the first time. No one really talks because
everyone is nervous and you just get to sit back and enjoy.
We arrived at a marina and checked into our boats. My boat was a
catamaran called the Cala Doro. My counselors were Chantal and Kate,
and the skipper was John. The 11 teenagers on the Cala Doro were going
to be in two different groups: the Dolphin group for the ones doing the
Marine Biology course (which I was), and the Neptune group for the ones
who were getting their advanced open water certification (which I
already have).
Lifeworks
The next day we woke up early to do a Lifeworks orientation, where we
got together and talked about life and other things you should think
about. It was really cool and made it a lot easier before we paired up
to go on to our own boats.
I also got to meet Jim, the very interesting and knowledgeable
man behind this program. I found out he speaks Dutch, which surprised
me, and we started to talk to each other in a secret language we both
knew. Totally made my day! After that we had some awesome pancakes and
departed West End to South Bay on Peter Island.
When we arrived at South Bay we did a dive briefing and skill dive.
It's a piece of cake if you're comfortable with your equipment. It also
can help if you have a problem with your equipment you didn't know
about. It's better to find out on the skill dive than on an actual
dive!
I could already tell that my next few weeks were going to be packed with tons of cool events!
Pleasure Diving & Saving Poor Bob
At 7:38 the next morning we set sail for Cooper Island. Our first
pleasure dive was on Blue Chromis reef — what a great dive! It was a
colorful reef with tons of sea fans and black and white spotted drums,
and, of course, blue chromis, which are everywhere in the BVI.
After that we sailed over to Savannah Bay and got to go water skiing!
While some of us were water skiing, others did a dinghy check, where
you learn how to drive the dinghy and save poor Bob. Bob was actually a
dressed-up Personal Floatation Device that dutifully hung out in the
water so we could practice how to save real people if they fell
overboard.
Finding the Center
I woke up the next morning at 6:30 and realized that it would be the
first day we start out in our groups. My group made a dive at Savannah
Bay to observe marine life, while Neptune brushed up on navigation
skills. We watched fish and how they react to other life forms. I don't
think I have ever observed this — it's quite funny, actually. Fish have
quite a character. It was an eye-opener for me and got me thinking
about each dive with a much different perspective.
After lunch the Dolphins headed to shore for a hike to focus on
ecosystems. We walked up and down the beach picking up some interesting
things, then brought them back to the group and talked about them.
We got to explore a little, and I climbed up to a
high rock right on the ocean and played with snails. That used to be my
favorite thing to do when I was young, and I just embraced the moment
and wondered how these tiny little snails planted themselves upon these
sharp rocks.
When everyone headed back to the boat, Emma and I
decided to stay on the beach and swim while talking about home and
experiences. This is when I think I finally felt comfortable being on
the trip, because I was starting to settle in with the people around me
and build relationships. There's always going to be a moment when you
can finally let your guard down and open up, and this was mine.
Time for Our Weekly Bath
We woke up early the next day for a trip to the most famous site in the
BVIs: the Baths, where beautiful granite boulders line the coast of
Virgin Gorda. It's known to be one of the world's most gorgeous
beaches. They call this area the Baths because slavers brought the
slaves who survived the long trip over to the British Virgin Islands to
bathe here before they were sold.
When we were approaching we could see the rocks from miles away, and
they were simply breathtaking. It looked like a scene from The Beach.
We anchored and started to explore. Chaz, Shawn, Emma, Anne, my bro
Casey and I all decided to do some climbing and kind of got stuck, but
we eventually made it down. Later I met up with Sam and Emma to chill
in one of the pools beneath the rocks.
Right before we had to leave Shawn and I found a crazy passage that
brought us to the top of a rock, and we could see over the entire area.
It was stunning.
We were all pretty tired, but when we got back to the boat we realized it was only 9 o'clock!
Real Food at Spanish Town
We found out the next morning that we were going to Spanish Town. It
had only been six days, but all the guys had been talking about was
hamburgers and meat. I was hoping this trip to town would keep them
quiet.
Emma and I hit a little Internet shop at the marina for a few minutes
and used the phones to call home. We also went to the grocery store to
buy some Jell-O and stopped by the restaurant to watch the guys indulge
like carnivores.
That evening we were scheduled to do our first night dive at Mountain
Point. I was really stoked — we all were! We jumped into the
pitch-black ocean, turned on our lights and descended. We hung out for
three minutes with no lights on so we could see bioluminescence, which
is always fun. And we got a surprise when we turned on the lights — a
cute squid was just cruising by us.
There's always a little flashing light tied to the line of the boat so
you can find your way back when you're diving at night, but when we
ascended we realized we were at our ActionQuest neighbors' boat; they
were doing a dive and had their light on, too. We borrowed their dinghy
to go back to our boat. Chaz started a new trend when we were getting
on the dinghy. He would scream, "Can I get a NATOOOOO?" and then
everyone would go, "NATOOOOOOOO." This was only the beginning of the
NATOOOOs.
We'd had a very long day, but it was probably one of my favorites. It wasn't hard to fall asleep that night.
John-O and the Chimney
The next day was the Chimney dive with our skipper, John-O (a name made
up by Chaz). The Chimney has an unusual underwater structure: There's a
short passage with multicolored sponges growing on the walls, and
little air bubbles floating along the side eventually make their way up
to give a sort of chimney look from the surface.
Next we motored over to Coral Gardens where we saw a wicked plane
wreck. It was in the middle of just sand, which was very cool — it was
like the ocean made a special spot for this plane. There was a cute
moray eel coming out of a hole in the plane, and there were tons of
Christmas tree worms.
After that dive we headed on over to Long Bay, where my group discussed underwater naturalist diving.
Locate, ID and Dance
We Dolphins got to do a cool naturalist dive at Leverick Bay to locate
and ID two local aquatic plants, four invertebrates and five aquatic
vertebrate animals.
Later we snorkeled in the mangroves at Vixen to look at the different
fish that live there. We were surprised by how much smaller the animals
were in the mangrove area than they were out in the big ocean; then we
discovered that they were all juveniles and that the mangroves act as
great fish nursery.
After that observation, we got ready for our first dance. It ended up
being really fun, especially when the whole gang pulled me onto the
dance floor. Chaz yelled, "Can I get a Nato?" and everyone yelled,
"NATOOOOOO!" All the other ActionQuesters must have thought our boat
was insane, but we didn't care — we all just laughed. At that moment I
smiled and realized that I was making some of the best friends I've
ever had. I wouldn't change that moment for the world.
Sleeping in and My PFD Tan
I love to sleep in. LOVE IT! And that's exactly what we got to do after
the dance. We got to sleep in till 7 a.m.! (INSERT SARCASM) It's a lot
better than 5:30 or 6, though. I woke up while we were sailing to Peter
Island. The sail took up most of our day, and I got a horrible tan
because of my PFD.
When we arrived, we were informed that we Dolphins were going to go on
our first PADI Underwater Photography specialty dive. Emma and I were
buddies, and I have a million funny pictures of her from that dive,
even though the dive was mainly to focus on taking pictures of
underwater life. I just had to slip in some funny ones!
Something amazing happened on that dive — something that made my whole
trip! My favorite fish is the juvenile trunkfish. I was thinking, "Man,
wouldn't it be amazing if I could see one? I haven't seen one since
last summer!" As soon as I had that thought a little juvenile trunkfish
just popped out of the rocks next to where I was taking a picture. I
almost died! It must have been fate.
Rhone Day
The Rhone is considered to be one of the world's best wreck dives, and
that was our next dive! The Rhone is divided into several parts, and it
takes about two dives to cover the full wreck. It's filled with schools
of bigeye snapper and eels, and there's colorful coral growing off the
wreck. Another cool thing is that there are bottles of wine imbedded in
the wreck by coral growth.
I swear, one stoplight parrotfish had something against me — it kept
swimming into my mask and nibbling at me. Shawn and Joe had a great
laugh watching me scream underwater every time this fish decided to
harass me!
Later that night we returned to do a short night dive at Peter Island
for a navigation test. Nobody got lost and we all made it back in time
for movie night — almost better than dessert for TV-starved teenagers!
Scientific Observation
The Dolphins were officially assigned to do scientific observation for
our final project. We had to pick something to observe, come up with a
hypothesis about it and then test the hypothesis.
Emma and I decided to study the eating habits of three different
herbivore fish at 15 feet and 30 feet. Our initial objective was to
determine if and why the food consumption of parrotfish, damselfish and
blue tangs is different at different depths.
Our hypothesis was that parrotfish and other fish feed more in
shallower water (15 feet) because the algae growing in the coral has
more light so photosynthesis causes the reef to be more lush. We would
be working on this assignment every dive we could.
Emma and I went to different areas of the reef, not too far away from
each other, and created quadrants by swimming 20 kick cycles in each
direction. Each of us was at a different depth, and we observed how
many times fish took a bite out of the reef. We had little charts where
we documented everything. At the end of all our observations we were
able to make a conclusion and a chart. Pretty clever, huh?
Nato's Three-Hour Tour
On the sail to Hodges Creek I actually got to be the skipper! I learned
a lot about navigating a boat (and we arrived safely) thanks to John-O.
We were getting ready to dive at Alice's Wonderland on the southwest
side of Ginger Island. It was extremely rough and we all had to be very
careful when getting in the water. If you learn how to dive no
matter the circumstances, you'll be quite the diver, though!
When we got in the ocean, the current — surprisingly — wasn't too
strong. The corals were very healthy, which always puts a smile on my
face; and, of course, there were huge mushroom coral heads. They are so
weird-looking! Joe even saw a spotted eagle ray! I was really jealous —
I think anyone who didn't see it was jealous!
Later that night we listened to an inspirational tape along with every
ActionQuester in the BVI. It was extremely life-changing; I'd like to
tell you everything about it, but you just have to experience it on
your own.
Big Almighty Hike
We woke up at 6 to get ready to do the big almighty hike: a five-hour
trip all the way to the top of Mt. Sage and back. Casey, Shawn, John-O
and Chaz all decided to run the hike! That was ridiculous. Sam and I
decided to have an extreme sing-along to get through it, which was
quite funny.
The hike was gorgeous. There were lush trees and some of the most
breathtaking sights I have ever seen in my entire life. When Sam and I
realized we were finally close to the top, we looked up to see Shawn,
Casey, Chaz and John-O just jogging down, not even out of breath,
saying, "You're almost there!" They rubbed it in our faces.
Jim said there was a book at the top of the hill that you sign, but
when we finally got up there, there wasn't anything! He totally tricked
us. And we had to go all the way back to town to have lunch.
Presentations
Before our presentations we Dolphins had to complete the tests for all
our PADI certifications, and the Neptunes had to finish theirs. We
found out that we all passed — a great accomplishment that made us all
quite happy. Then it was presentation time. After all the dives we'd
done, Emma and I finally had all of our information, and we gave our
presentation. It turns out that our information was correct — it's true
that most fish eat in the shallower areas of the reef.
Is It Over Already?
When it was almost time to leave, we all kept talking about it. Emma
even managed to slip a couple tears out, which made us all realize how
soon we would be leaving. We all wrote little cards to give to each
other so we could read them later.
All of the ActionQuesters met up on one of the boats after dinner. Jim
and Mike told each of us what time we would be departing and talked to
us about our trips. When Jim was talking he mentioned the Cala Doro and
Chaz goes, "Can I get a NATO?" Suddenly not only our boat, but the rest
of ActionQuest goes, "NATOOOOOOO!" We weren't the silly ones any more.
Everyone was.
I knew I was going to miss that place — We had a million memories together.
That's what ActionQuest does: It challenges you, changes you, makes you
open up to new things and befriend people you never thought you would.
It opens your eyes to new experiences and opportunities.
That night most of us stayed up talking. Goodbye after goodbye, our family was getting smaller and more tears would pour.
It was finally time for Sam and me to leave. I hugged everyone, trying
not to cry. As the bus started to drive off all I could do was smile,
knowing that this experience would be one that I'd cherish and remember
forever.
Special thanks to Action Quest, www.actionquest.com.. .trying not to
cry; then I hear, "Can I get a Nato?" and I hear "Natooooo," and I had
to cry. After hearing it every day for almost three weeks, it was hard
not to cry when I heard it for the last time.
I got on the bus, looking at everything and everyone. Standing there
was Jim, the man behind ActionQuest, and I remembered when I first met
him. As the bus started to drive off all I could do was smile, knowing
that this experience would be one that I'd cherish and remember
forever.trying not to cry; then I hear, "Can I get a Nato?" and I hear
"Natooooo," and I had to cry. After hearing it every day for almost
three weeks, it was hard not to cry when I heard it for the last time.
I got on the bus, looking at everything and everyone. Standing there
was Jim, the man behind ActionQuest, and I remembered when I first met
him. As the bus started to drive off all I could do was smile, knowing
that this experience would be one that I'd cherish and remember forever.
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