Location: Dominica
Hi everyone!
This morning I woke up at 6:30 to the wonderful smell of French toast. I found the head and sous chefs for the day, Mo, Aoife, and Francesca, respectively, in the galley, slaving away. At 7:00, I awoke everyone else to “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from the Mulan soundtrack. We all got ready and gathered for breakfast. I happen to dislike French toast, but I was told by everyone else that it actually tasted like real French toast. Apparently, that’s quite the compliment because they got Nutella and syrup absolutely everywhere.
After clean up, we dinghied over to Dominica for a river tour. While on the Indian River, we learned all about the brackish water, the local plants, the water chicken, and more. We also got to see the wonder that is Calypso’s house from Pirates of the Caribbean 2 since the Indian River is where some of those scenes were filmed. This excursion also doubled as our Oceanography Lab, so we took samples of the water at different points of the river to be analyzed later. Once we reached the furthest point that the boats could take us, we walked down a short path to play with some pigs. On our way back, my flip-flop, very dramatically, fell apart. Our lovely tour guide, Roscco, tried to help me fix it, but we were unsuccessful, so I walked barefoot down the rest of the trail.
We then dinghied back to the boat for lunch, which was chicken, rice, zucchini, and leftover okonomiaki for the lucky few of us who were first in line. We broke for clean up and the advanced scuba students started their knowledge reviews. While they were doing that, I started my literature review on wave energy for my individual project. We took a quick break from schoolwork to pull up the anchor in order to move the boat. I had the honor of flaking the anchor chain, which is quite literally the muddiest job we have. We resumed our work as the boat was moving, and many of us took a much-needed nap.
Once we got to the other side of the island, Lizzy and I sat on the bowsprit and watched Perry struggle to tie us to the mooring ball for 45 minutes. Then we ate dinner while watching the staff vlog and sunset. To finish off the night, we did the cupid shuffle, took an ocean shower, did some laundry, and hung out on deck.
Long story short, today was just another day aboard the Ostar. I find it absolutely insane that this is my everyday life, and I can assure you that everyone agrees with me there. I have already met so many amazing people and had so many unforgettable memories.
To my mom, dad, and brother: I love and miss you all very much!