Location: Petit Byahaut
We woke up to a beautiful morning, clear blue sky and the golden glow of the friendly rays of sunshine. After everybody was up and ready, we had breakfast and had a nice morning chat with a cup of tea. At this point, my friends, I have to spoil the fact that not everything went accordingly. So pull your chairs a little closer and turn up the volume. Here it comes. After clean-up, we split into our dive groups so we can start some exciting new adventures. The first group started to get ready and set up the dive gear, while others went down below and started on their EFR studies with Steph. As Sam, Alexis, Eulalie, Sophie, and Lucia passed down their equipment to me into the dingy.
I could see the happiness and excitement on their faces. We were ready to go, and there was nothing stopping us finally. We drove by the side of our little bay and found a lovely sandy spot to drop anchor and get the dive going. I was watching as Sam taught the others with care and patience. After they were ready, they started their first underwater adventure. I spent the next couple of hours in the dingy, watching over them and enjoying the warmth of the sun. Up until 20 minutes, that is, at which point I realized that I should have brought something to have more shade because I was about to turn into the next poster boy of KFC and not in a good way. After their dive, the group was ready to return to Ocean Star to have some rest and lunch after a job well done. Not long after we got back, and the lunch was about to start, our anchor alarm went off, warning us that we were drifting. However, it was so slow it was hardly noticeable. I made the decision to get the anchors up so we could re-anchor the boat. In the process, we noticed that the chains were wrapped around each other, so we sent Sam and Steph down to check out the situation. As the events started to unfold, we came to the point when we had to make the decision to get the boat into deeper water away from any hazard in the shallows. The next few hours did fly by. The whole crew was working as a well-organized unit to help out with anything from bringing a cup of water to the ones under the sun to hoisting and dropping the anchors as we were unraveling the mystery of the chains. Around 5:30, we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The only problem we had was that we were at the same time losing daylight.
Therefore we got our amazing divers out of the water and made sure we secured the anchors the best we could. We had no other choice but to leave our bay behind and head back to Young Island to pick up a mooring ball for the night so we could have some rest and tackle the difficulties in the morning with fresh heads and bodies. As we pulled into the mooring field, we deployed our dinghy Irv and sent out Sam to find our mooring ball in the cover of the night. As soon as she signaled us, I started to drive the boat towards her, and Ash was using a searchlight to help. Given the size of our vessel, I needed Eamon to relay all communications between me on the helm and Ash at the bow, so I could drive the boat directly to our dingy and stop it right there, as Ash and Sam coordinated the bowlines to secure Ocean Star on the mooring-ball. After we were done with that, we still could not go to bed as we had to clean up after dinner and get the deck ready. I was amazed to watch our crew jump into action and organizing everything in order to get things done as fast and as neatly as we possibly could. Listening to some music and telling jokes did the trick and the boat was clean and tidy in just minutes. I feel a lot has happened, but our little unexpected journey got everybody closer and was a great team-building experience.
Photo 1: Sam in Irv and me drivin da boat
Photo 2: Sam unraveling the mystery of the chain
Photo 3: Teddy, Logan, and Eamon sweating on the anchors
Photo 4: ^
Photo 5: Midday
Photo 6: Stefi watching the anchor
Photo 7: Pirates of the Caribbean
Photo 8: Sunset