We began our morning by gathering at Clear View for our first visit to Fantasy and Crystal Caves. Fantasy Cave is the site of the upcoming interactive broadcasts, and we needed to visit to make measurements and plan areas for setting up equipment, etc. Terrence introduced us to the managers and tour guides that we will be working with over the course of the next few days.

Back to Bermuda it is! Amy and Carl hit the road/air in the middle of the night to head to Bermuda for the Bermuda Cave Conservation Distance Learning Expedition, in partnership with Interactive Expeditions. We will be doing a series of live and interactive broadcasts from underwater in Fantasy Cave, which is part of the Walsingham System. We are grateful to the many sponsors making this experience possible!

The morning greeted us with high winds and choppy waters offshore. Today is the day we are supposed to depart Bermuda. We decided to leave you with a few scenic photos from the island, courtesy of our sponsors Mr. and Mrs. Joe Smetana. We are certainly grateful for their generosity, support, and contributions to the Bermuda Biodiversity Project. We also want to thank Annie Glasspool – whose tireless effort and energy will keep this project going for many years to come!! A big thank you also to Mr. and Mrs. Gil Nolan, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Ward, Mrs. Charles Tucker, Mr. JP Rouja and staff, Mr. Glad Doors, the teachers and support staff at Cedarbridge Academy and Berkeley Institute, Noah’s Ark, Triangle Diving, Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, His Excellency the Governor and Lady Vereker, an anonymous donor, and the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo. We have had an outstanding time working in Bermuda and learning about the ecosystems and people, and we are already looking forward to our return!!

Renee and Rima woke early this morning and hit the railway trail for a stroll. The major objective for today was to repack and ship the 400+ pounds of equipment back to the United States. We worked on the packing over breakfast, and Annie showed up with the truck at 10:30. Once loaded, we journeyed to FedEx to ship our gear. It was reassuring to arrive at FedEx here in Bermuda where they know that the USA is a country and that we do NOT want this to go ground service (see previous updates!). In fact, the whole process took only 25 minutes instead of the 3 hours it took in Orlando…but in all fairness, the paperwork required for customs was minimal this time around.

After a leisurely breakfast and bidding farewell to Karl, the first item on today’s agenda was a visit to Church Cave, a dry cave system in Hamilton Parish, Bermuda. The dry caving team included Betsy, Amy, Rima, Bob, Renee, Annie, Tom, Gil, Jen, His Excellency Governor Vereker and Jason, his driver. In addition, Jack Ward, Head of Conservation Services, met with us for part of the tour. Tom led the group though a dense section of Bermudian jungle to the mouth of the cave. The climb down into the cave was pretty intense, and involved scrambling over several boulders and slippery ledges. At the bottom, we were rewarded with a magnificent view that included several stalactites and a bright blue cave pool. To continue our exploration, we took turns using a small boat paddling back to the dark recesses of the cave. In addition to several more speleothems, we were also intrigued by the wreckage of a small boat at the bottom of the pool. The pool is spectacular plunging down to a depth of about 70 feet. The divers had their HID cave diving lights with them for better illumination of the cave. Dropping the light heads into the water gave the water a bluish appearance casting shadows from the rocks beneath the boat. After a bit more climbing about, the team exited just in time to get His Excellency to the next important event on his agenda. (We are excited to note that the last governor that visited Church Cave did so about 130 years ago with candles as his source of illumination!!)

Today was another early day for the team….Amy and Bob went for a run on the old railway line that used to surround the island. The scenery was amazing! After a quick breakfast, we loaded all the Human ROV gear into Annie’s truck. When the tanks and dive gear were all accounted for we headed to Cliff Pool one last time. Set up for the day’s events went fairly smoothly, and at noon we were able to take a quick lunch break.

It was another early morning for the Cambrian Crew. Bob was finishing up his movie clip for tonight while Karl was preparing his camera for the dive today. After a quick breakfast, the team planned the day’s dive. Our dives are usually planned the night before, but because we got in late last night, the team felt it was better to wait until the morning. The objectives of the day were discussed and after going through a checklist, our gear was loaded into Annie’s truck. We once again headed to Cliff Pool, where our objectives today were to assess the current condition of the line and to provide photo documentation of the cave environment. These photos will be used to help with the eventual cave map as well as with educational programs in the future.

It was an early day to rise and shine! Somehow, all of the food has ended up at the guys’ cottage, so we girls made our way up to their place at about 7:30 today looking for a morsel of food. (What they don’t know is that we kept the Oreos here at our place!!). After a leisurely breakfast and discussion of the day’s dive plan, we loaded the truck and car and headed on our way to Cliff Pool. Today’s mission is to sample the cave for bacteria and microbes that might be found in the sediment or on the walls of Green Bay.

Today we took advantage of the time change and lighter schedule to catch up rest-wise before jumping into our first significant assessment of Green Bay Cave. We started a bit later than usual and hit the water at 12:30. Gil Nolan and Tom Iliffe comprised one dive team, with Renee, Bob and Karl making up the Cambrian Foundation team. Amy, Betsy, Jen and Annie stayed topside in support roles. Our goal was to explore the northeastern side of the cave through the Green Bay entrance to determine specific requirements and challenges for surveying the cave in the future. Also, the cave has recently had a lot of the permanent line replaced, and we wanted to become familiar with the placement, as it affects survey.

This morning started out with us all meeting at the boys’ villa for breakfast and to pack the gear needed for the dry cave workshop. Then it was off to Shelly Bay Park to begin the workshop with the student volunteers from Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo (BAMZ). Four student volunteers joined us for the workshop and were very excited to be learning some line drills in the park. It was definitely a new experience for these students and they were eager to learn as much as they could. Renee and Amy started off the workshop with a discussion of the skills needed to communicate underwater. The young volunteers were taught a variety of hand signals commonly used while diving that they would be using later in the day.