Location: Savannah Bay, Virgin Gorda
After an exhausting day of travels, all 20 of us have finally arrived in the Caribbean and boarded Ocean Star. Despite a restorative sleep last night docked at a harbor in Soper’s Hole, Tortola, which afforded us the luxury of our one and final sleep with cabin A/C, I found myself struggling to peel myself out of my sleeping shelf. My excitement for the day (and my duty as skipper to wake the ship up) served to be enough to get me to roll out of bed fashionably late at 7:08, which I’m sure my peers appreciated. Today we woke to cloudy skies with a gentle, humid breeze rolling through. We ate our breakfast as sweat-coated and sleep-deprived zombies but still managed to wear smiles and soak in the beauty of the exotic location we had all been teleported to over the course of a day. After these brief moments of serenity, we were pulled from our dazes as multiple documents ranging from the code of conduct to the chore wheel explanation, were reviewed as a group. Then we split into three groups and got a more in-depth explanation of the vessel, her systems, and safety. Just before lunch, the non-scuba-certified members of the group (the vast majority) began our scuba education by watching some videos. Finally, it was time to take Ocean Star out on the open water and set sail to Virgin Gorda. We set sail, listened to some tunes, and of course, watched some more Open Water training videos. Once the anchor was down in Savanah Bay, we all enjoyed our first cleansing dip in the ocean. But there was a catch; we had to take our swim tests which involved swimming eight laps around our massive boat. We all toweled/showered off and enjoyed dinner together. If one thing is clear after day 1, it’s that life on this boat is not going to be a cakewalk, but it will undoubtedly be an amazing experience.