Greetings from the Virgin Islands! Location: Leverick Bay - British Virgin Islands City: Virgin Gorda, Day 1 by Wayne & Karen Brown

We've traveled over 3,000 miles and it has taken us over 24 hours! Here's what we had to go through to get here.

Friday Dec. 20
3:30 AM (PST) - Friday, Dec. 20 (Irvine, CA); Get up at 3:30 am.
4:30 AM: Take taxi to John Wayne Airport.
6:47 AM: Fly to Chicago, Illinois.
12:51 PM (CST): Arrive at Chicago O'Hare Airport and change planes.
2:14 PM: Fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
8:44 PM (EST+1 hour); Arrive at San Juan airport and change from a large jet plane to a small twin engine propeller airplane.
10:05 PM: Fly to Beef Island, Tortola, British West Indies. Pick-up luggage and go through customs and immigration.
11:15 PM: Take taxi to nearby guesthouse.
Midnight: Go to bed.
Saturday, Dec. 21
6:30 AM; Get up.
8:00 AM: Pick-up truck takes us to the Beef Island ferry dock.
8:15 AM: Ferry leaves for Virgin Gorda.
9:00 AM: Arrive at Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda.

(Use math to figure this out: If we are on Eastern Standard Time plus one hour, what time is it in California if it is midnight in the BVI? How many hours did it take us to get to Leverick Bay? Remember to change all times to EST+ 1.)

We have arrived to start our three week study of the Virgin Islands, which are located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea. The Virgin Islands are owned by the United States and England. We will be visiting both the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. The U.S. Virgin Islands are St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John and some tiny islands. The British Virgin Islands include Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke, Anegada, Peter Island, Cooper Island, Norman Island and several tiny islands, too. We’ll be studying the health of the coral reefs and marine life, looking at the diversity of land animal and plant life, and learning about the history and culture of each island. We will also be investigating sunken ship wrecks and visiting places where pirates used to live and visit.

Fortunately we have made it here with all our luggage and equipment. Even though we are here, we won't be unpacked and settled in until tonight, when we get to where we will have staying.

We are staying with our friends, Mike and Marcia Goldberg, their 2-year old daughter, Jeri, and their dog, Jet. Mike and Marcia are in charge of Dive BVI. Unlike last year we are not staying onboard a special live-aboard dive boat. For this expedition we will be staying on land with Mike and Marcia, and going on daily dives from their dive boats that leave from Leverick Bay.

After we settle in with Mike and Marcia, we then have to try to get access to the Internet to upload all our journals and photos for you to see.

Right now we are going to finish writing this journal, have lunch and make are plans for the next few days.

Welcome to our expedition to all our student adventurers.
Wayne & Karen Brown

Truck license plate: "Virgin Islands
Nature's Little Secrets".

De Loose Mongoose. We stayed overnight at this small guesthouse on the beach at Beef Island. (Do you know what a mongoose is?)

Here we are at Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda, BVI. This will be our base for the first part of our expedition

Wayne at work on the computer getting the day's journal ready for the expedition web site.