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British Virgin Islands - 2015, Session 1

Staff Update Day 1

Location: West End, Tortola

Day one is approaching fast and the crew of Spindrift II is very excited. Personally, I am very happy to back in the BVI running an ActionQuest boat after a summer away. The team has been busy getting ready over the past two weeks, preparing for all the awesome experiences to come. The setup process began with the arrival of the AQ container from the Florida office. Inside was tons of exciting equipment and delicious food. In addition to the container, we also began unpacking all the other storage areas here in West End, Tortola.

We broke down into teams to accomplish all the tasks at hand. One tackled unpacking and assembling all of our dinghies. These boats will be a huge part of our lives all summer. We use them to travel between the sailboats, to shore, to dive sites, and to ski. Spindrift will be towing two dinghies named Aggressive and Zodiac. Another team has been preparing program materials and foods, while others began assembling windsurfing and wakeboarding gear. I was involved most heavily in the assembly of all our dive gear from inspecting and pumping tanks, to sorting BCDs, masks and fins! It sounds like a lot of work in retrospect, but time flew by and everyone here made even the heaviest lifting a ton of fun.

Alisa, Davis, and I are very excited to meet our crew and get out sailing and diving. Over the next three weeks, we will be circumnavigating Tortola, the largest island in the BVI, visiting many other great islands, and diving some of my favorite dive sites. Those include Brewer's Bay, The Playgrounds at Jost VanDyke, and the wreck of the Chikuzen. Beyond the diving, the BVI are my favorite place to sail, and I can't wait to begin training our shipmates in the operation of Spindrift. In no time, they will be sailing the boat on their own, under our supervision. We will also be conducting some wonderful courses along the way. Alisa and Davis are excited to be teaching the rescue course and I am really looking forward to working with the Dolphin marine biology program.

Today, we are making final preparations in organizing and provisioning the boats. Watching all the food find its way on board means that the start of the program is near and I speak for all our crew when I say that we cannot wait!

 

Here is an introduction to the crew of Spindrift:

Bryant- skipper/dive instructor

Alisa- dive instructor/mate

Alisa was raised in North Florida and has never been far from the water. She has been diving since she was 16 and her passion for scuba and the undersea world has only increased over the years. Alisa studied Ecotourism in college and became a PADI scuba instructor in 2014, and has been instructing in the Dominican Republic for the last six months. She enjoys engaging with people and teaching and encouraging people to love the water and it's inhabitants as much as she does! This is her first year working with ActionQuest and she is more than excited to begin this new adventure!

Davis- dive instructor/mate

Davis grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where he learned to dive at a young age with his father and brother. Knowing he loved adventure, he spent a lot of time torn between diving and rock climbing, his other passion. But, after gaining his Rescue Diver certification through ActionQuest in 2009, he realized his love for the water swamped that of the mountains and went on to become a dive instructor in 2012. Davis recently graduated from Eckerd College and hopes to continue working as a dive instructor in his time in between summers at ActionQuest.