Splish Splash First Time in the Ocean!
Location: Galleon Beach, Antigua
We were all woken up bright and early at 7 AM this morning, while others were woken up earlier (they slept on deck in hammocks and had to move inside in the middle of the night cause it started to rain). Rachel made really yummy baked oatmeal with peanut butter.
While we were learning the differences of our life vests, an all-girls team from Mexico finished their row from Spain to Antigua, it's called World's Toughest Row. It was super fun to cheer them on to the finish line and see their warm welcome (hopefully we'll get just as good a welcome in Tahiti, ahah). The hardest part of the morning was putting our immersion suits on, otherwise known as a Gumby suit. I made the rookie mistake of not putting my hair back in a ponytail, so it got stuck in front of the hood, and I couldn't see, so I technically didn't finish the test and had to do it again.
Right as we were going over some emergency protocols, we learned that a few of the boats in the bay next to where we boarded Ocean Star had moved and that we should secure a spot ASAP. So in true Seamester style, we switched plans and got the two boats ready to motor over. We learned how to coil a line and drop the anchor. As soon as we were done, we got ready to jump in the water for the first time and do our swim tests. It was so nice to cool off and have some fun. We even saw a turtle! After drying off, we had pasta salad for lunch as well as some leftovers from yesterday. Then we finished learning about the rest of the safety protocols (fire and evacuation), and we all practiced using the fire hose off the front(bow) of the boat.
The group split up to start learning for open water and advanced dive certifications. But Katie and I were able to chill and snorkel around the beach area, and we saw another turtle!
After everyone finished up their lessons, we took our first ocean shower! Some of us also went onto the dinghy to cheer on another team finishing the row race! We saw a gorgeous sunset at dinner and cleaned the boat up to get ready for tomorrow.
Xoxo,
Helena