(Frances Whyte) | Environmental Exploration of the British Virgin Islands

Wow, I can’t believe that our third week of senior project has come to an end. This week I learned so much, and spent a countless amount of time weeding and reflecting. Most days our whole five hours of work consisted of endless weeding, and on occasion we were allowed to pick white beans and onions. I can’t say that weeding is my favorite activity on the farm since it is so mindless, and repetitive, but I can say that we made some of the best memories while weeding. When it became so hot, Cat and I, sometimes became slightly delusional. I remember getting so hot, we decided to explore the planks of metal that were suspended over a swamp, next to the row we were weeding. We wandered out on to the two by four planks of steel and started to bounce and we both assumed a, sort of, praying mantis pose, with our hands in the air, and bounced up and down laughing so hard I cried. About half way through the week, we started listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on t

Today was an awesome day! We got to sleep in until 6:15 since it was the weekend. Although we didn't have to work today, Cat and I offered to help pack Aragorn’s truck for the market this morning. It was super easy work, mostly just moving the herbs and vegetables that we picked into a cooler and then into the bed of the truck. We then headed down to the market and spent time with Aragorn at the station, and met loads of his friends and usual customers. It was super hot today, but was relaxing hanging in the shade of the tent at the market instead of weeding. We dove this afternoon at a site called Dry Rock. As the name explains, it is a series of a few large rocks sticking out of the coast of Cooper Island. Before we went diving we had ice cream from Cooper for the last time, and it was so delicious. I had coconut and chocolate. Bruce was there, per usual, and some others divers. I saw a baby trunkfish and it was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. It was the classic pea si

Today was our last day working on the farm. I thought I would be relieved, after we finished, but it felt bittersweet. Even though the time passed slowly while we were working, and it was typically very hot, I really enjoyed my time with Cat. Our time together was super fun since we were able to be super goofy with each other and get to know Drake. I don't think I'm going to miss the weeding though. This morning I made our usual scrambled eggs for breakfast, and we headed to work at 5:45. We started off the day, weeding, and listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. About an hour late, thankfully Drake told us that we could do something else if we wanted, so we spent about an hour picking Mint and Basil to prepare for the market tomorrow. After that we weeded some more until we were given another job. Drake told us that we needed to rinse out and move 50 cinder blocks, for who knows what. That was our last task before our five hours were up, which was good since i

We woke up at the usual 5:30, and surprisingly it's not that bad waking up so early. It is already light and warm outside so it almost feels like 8:00. Also we go to bed super early so I feel well rested. Continuing our left over work from yesterday, Cat and I started weeding, ughhh. The morning started off quite cool and it even sprinkled for a moment. Bonding over our love for Harry Potter, we decided it would be a good idea to listen to one of the book while we worked to make it go faster. It totally worked, and was especially nice when it got really hot in the mid morning since today we weeded for 5 hours straight. After work, we spent two hours eating lunch, showering, and relaxing before heading to the beach. Our cat, Good Cat, brought a half live lizard while we were relaxing after lunch, but I guess that just seems to be normal these days. Thanks to a recommendation from Zante, Aragorn's son, we headed to a new beach, Josiah's Bay, and it was absolutely beautiful. T

It was extremely hot here today. Even though it seems to hover around the same temperature, 83 or 84ish degrees Fahrenheit here all the time, today felt like it was so much hotter than usual. Getting a start at 5:45 as usual we started by weeding the bed we didn't finish yesterday. Thankfully some of it was in the shade, but it hadn't been during the hot part of the day :(. Cat and I thought we would be weeding all day, or at least cleaning some spring onions, like yesterday, but we took it upon ourselves to notice that some of the white beans had dried and we escaped to pick those. This took us an hour and twenty minutes since we couldn't move to quickly in the heat. While picking the beans Cat discovered that there was an avocado tree on the farm but they wouldn't be ripe until September or October. After that, sadly, we went back to weeding and the full heat of the day had kicked in. Drake, noticing that we were melting, offered the job of bagging the peppers he had

We started our day with a wake up at 5:30 to continue our weeding on the farm so that we could be done with our five hours before it got hot. Stating at 6:00, we were up and working before Drake. We weeded, continuing the bed that we had not finished from yesterday, until 8AM excepting that we would be weeding. Cat and I had a genius idea to find buckets to sit on and scoot along as we weeded so the squatting and bending over for five hours wouldn't hurt as much. Drake wandered up the hill and let us know that if we wanted to, we would start picking the green onions and cleaning them. I learned quickly that it is important when pulling them out of the ground not to stick the hand fork to close to the onions or I would stab them and damage them. Once we dug up multiple bunches Cat and I headed over to a large tub in the shade, bringing our seat buckets of course, to start cleaning them. First we had to pull the roots apart from each other and rinse the mud out of them. Then, you hav

Today we woke up at 5:30 get ready for our work on the farm which we would start at 5:45. Even though that sounds early, it is already bright and warm here, at that time, and the roosters have long been awake and lively. Like usual Cat and I started our weeding early so that we would be able to be done in two and a half or three hours before it got too hot. The weeding is getting easier as we acclimate to the heat and mindlessly picking grass for hours, but when the three hour mark we checked in with Drake and he told us to just keep weeding because there is nothing else to do right now. A few minutes later, after we got over our disappointment that we would be weeding all morning, Drake brought us some fresh mango to snack on. It was so delicious and fresh tasting. This afternoon Cat and I went diving, and ended up diving the wreck, Fearless, a site we had been to previously. Despite that, I still enjoyed it, and Cat pointed out a baby trunkfish to me. It was not the tiny juvenile th

This week we transitioned from our time on the boat to living on the farm. Wednesday was our first day on the farm and we were able to meet our mentor, Aragorn, and his family, and get settled into the farm. Thursday, our first day working, was tough because the work we were doing was not what we expected, but thankfully our first day was mostly cloudy and rainy, which was nice because we weren’t working in the blistering heat. I was disappointed that we had spent half of the hours, on our first day, weeding, instead of learning about all the things that they grow on the farm. Sadly, we spent even more time weeding on our second day, but we started at 6:00 instead of 7:00 to finish our work for the day before it got too hot. Even though the work here on the farm is strenuous, it is a good way to be involved on the island. I learned mostly how to weed without hurting your back, but also about some new fruit that I had never tried. Cat and I tried some bananas that were grown on the f

Today Cat and I woke up at 5:30 so that we could get to work before the heat. One of the cats left us a present again, a dead and bloody mouse carcass on our kitchen floor. Our first task of the day, from Drake, would be to weed the bed next to the one we did yesterday. I was a little upset about this because in our time on the farm we've spent five and a half hours weeding and I was hoping to learn more about the types of things they grow on the farm, and their farming techniques. After two and a half hours of weeding, Drake came back and told me that I needed to pick a pound of mint for an order than was going out this afternoon, and he and Cat ventured in to the woods to pick some native Caribbean flowers for the order, too. I only spent half an hour picking mint, but it was better than weeding because, even though I was still bent over, I was cutting the stems instead of digging my hands into the mud to rip the roots out. We spent half an hour boxing things for the order going

We woke up at three AM to a turrential downpour on the tin roof that was four feet above our heads. Our second wakeup call was at about 6:30 when we woke up to start work at seven. We had cereal since our stove doesn’t work right now. To start off the day we met the manger of the farm, Drake, and boxed fruits and vegetables that were ordered to be sent to boats in the harbor. We learned all about Drakes, life in Dominica  before he came here, and his three sons. In order to finish the boxes cat and I learned how to cut some of the herbs so they can grow back in the future and hw much to pick. W also spent some time picking white beans off the vine, and enjoyed our time as it down poured on us because it meant that it wasn’t blistering hot. For the last two and half hours, the sun came out and it got quiet hot. We weeded a row that would be used for other crops they hadn’t planted yet. It was very hard work, weeding in the heat, but I did feel like after learning all the things we were

Today we had a relaxing morning as it was our last day on the boat and we would be sending mike off at the airport. After that we spent time with my family and did an afternoon scuba dive. We dove at a place called Painted Walls. For the first 10 minutes I was pretty unimpressed as we were just swimming along the bottom of the ocean. We arrived at these huge canyons that we were able to swim through. The canyon walls were covered in extravagant fungus and coral. When we looked up, the light was shining down into the canyon walls and hundreds of fish were swimming above us. We then headed to the farm and met Aragorn and his wife Federica, and his son, Zante, who I think is about our age. Zante showed us around the farm and to our cottage. We were then shown how to identify many of the things we would be working with like cabbage, lettuce, spinach, carrots, mint, mustard, and others. To finish our night we headed down to our cabin and found the dead snake that our cat left us which was

Today we had plans to dive the Wreck of the Rhone, a famous steam ship that was sunk in October 1867 off the coast of Salt Island. Upon our arrival, we found that there was too much to much of a current to dive there, so we changed locations and decided to dive the Wreck of the Fearless. Even though we couldn't swim through it, like we would have been able to do at The Rhone, the ships walls had been deteriorated so we could see through it to the other side. There was some of the most colorful coral growing on the wreck which attracted exquisite fish to the site. We were able to see some trunk fish, my favorite species that are native to the islands. Cat and I have recently been on the search to find a juvenile trunkfish since they are so adorable. For our second dive we went back to the Rhone and were able to dive half of it, but were not able to swim through, but hopefully we will come back another time and dive the whole ship. The nice part about going back to the Rhone was that

We got to sleep in a little bit since we wouldn't start our diving till 8AM. The two sites we dove today were called The Indians, and Angel Fish Reef. The first dive we did, at The Indians, was so incredible. We saw so much wildlife, including three different Eagle Rays, which were so big. They are some of my favorite animals. We were also able to see a baby trunk fish, and an eel. Our second dive site was not that exciting compared to the first. For the first 30 feet, there was some really cool coral, but when we swam deeper than that, it seemed like we were just swimming along the sand and there wasn't very much to see. Tomorrow we will be diving the Wreck of the Rhone, a wreck famous in the British Virgin Islands, and I am so excited. My brother will also be there, and it will be nice to spend time with him since I haven't seen him in a while. Hours Today- 5 Hours Hours Total- 38.5 hours Posted- 22:23

So far, Senior Project has been an unbelievable experience. After a long day of travel, Cat and I made it here last Tuesday. Getting right to work, we sat down for our online work with hopes that we would be able to get in the water soon. After about 15 hours of boring online learning we were able to get in our scuba gear and start learning the basics. What I most surprised about was how it felt to be breathing out of the regulator. Even though the air is incredibly dry, and the salt water doesn’t help, it feel so normal to be breathing underwater that I could just take out my regulator and everything would be fine. We were able to dive many reefs, a cave, a shipwreck, and even a dive at night, which have all been so unique and stunning in their own way. At this point I feel comfortable identifying many species that one could find in the Virgin Islands area such as, trunk fish, pufferfish, angle fish trigger fish file fish, barracuda, sea urchin, and many others. I have reall

Another early morning today, waking up at 7:15, we headed out for our dives. Today, at Big Grado, we would be diving along the side of a reef and into a small cave which would be our first time in a cave. At first, I was unimpressed with the lack of coral that at the site compared to the other sites we have been at, but once we reached the cave it was so incredible. It was about 20 feet wide in all directions and had some of the most red coral and beautiful rocks that I had seen. For our second dive, we dove the Kodiak Queen, a wreck intentionally sunken a few years ago specifically for diving. While there, we were able to see two large French Angle Fish which are mostly black with yellow scales on it, and so unique looking. We also saw two very large pufferfish. At times, they swam within inches of my hands at times.We were also able to swim through parts of the wreck. Even though it was dark, we could see thing they had put inside as a joke, like a computer keyboard and a home phone.

We did so much diving today, we were so busy. Waking up at 7:15 we had a quick breakfast and were picked up for our dive. Four or Five people from the Schooner Columbia, a boat we saw while sailing out of Chesapeake Bay this fall., were also on board ready to dive. I really enjoyed hearing about their experience on a tall ship and how it compared to mine. We dove at Cistern Point for our first dive this morning, which was a little bit cold, but we were able to see a lot of cool animals, including 7 or 8 lobsters, some trigger fish, and some lion fish. Our second dive was at Vanishing Rock, and I was able to wear a wetsuit on top of my first one to keep warm. We dove around the perimeter of a rock that stuck out of the water. Since there was a strong current, even though it was hard to swim against, it brought some really large fish into the site. This afternoon, I had to hide in the shade from the sun since I have such pale skin, and I had to rest before our third dive of the day. Cat

Upon wake-up this morning, we were up and at'em. We had a 7:15 wakeup call so we could get to the dive site before the other boats in the surrounding area. We dove at two different sites called Chimney and Coral Gardens. We dove for about 45 to 50 minutes at both sites. The first site had really incredible wildlife. We were able to see two nurse sharks, some trigger fish, parrot fish, shrimp, and giant lobster. We also saw 7 lion fish, an invasive species from the eastern hemisphere. Though I knew it was the law to kill them, when I watched the dive master take out his spear gun and watched him shoot one, I felt an odd sensation of guilt in my body. The spear has 5 prongs and when it shoots the fish, it travels all the way through the fish and out the other side. At our second dive site, we were able to swim under an archway of coral for about 15 feet, and then came out of the other side between two twenty foot towering walls with about 10 feet in between them. Though there weren&#

We woke up around 8:30 this morning and I had some very delicious eggs and a bagel for breakfast. After finishing up the online work for scuba, working from 9AM to 12PM, we were finally able to relax for a minute and absorb the sun before heading out for more work. This afternoon we would be given a chance to get in the scuba gear and learn about all the essentials while we were in shallow water before diving tomorrow. Our mentor, Kay, taught us all about these things. Something I though was cool was learning to control my buoyancy using our breath and how to properly fill our BCD's vests with air to keep a stable buoyancy. Even though I applied sunscreen multiple times throughout the day yesterday, the parts of my back that I couldn't fully reach got sunburned, so this will be something that I will need to learn to take care of for the remainder of the trip. Even though the water was very murky I was able to see a baby barracuda which was super cool, because I always imagined

I woke up to the rumbling of the engine on our boat and I felt comforted by the rocking of the waves as I lay in my bed. After our boat ride to our anchor site beside the abandoned shore of Prickly Pear and a quick breakfast, Cat, Mike (Cat's dad), and I jumped off the boat and headed for a swim. We explored the glassy rubble on the beach and came upon a baby goat. It was so adorable and made the cutest little goat noise. We were also able to find about 50 hermit crabs, a little bit smaller than my fist, hiding in a bush at the base of an indigenous tree on the beach. I have never seen hermit crabs this large, but Mike told me that they were bigger than the ones were normally saw in the water for mother protected from predators, like birds. When walking around the beach, we saw a bee digging a hole in the sand. It made me realize that insects are a lot more than animals than I thought they were instead of just multi-legged crawly things. After our swim Cat and I hunkered down for f