Location: Great Harbour Peter, Peter Island
After their first night on the boat, our fresh and ready student crew were awakened at 06:50 to get an early start for our first day on the water. It was a day of learning how a boat operates, starting with how to clean up after breakfast dishes for 12. Before we could take the boat off the dock, we spent some time with Mike and Travis, the founders of Sea|mester, to talk about the history of the program, as well as to give the students a feel for the experience of the upcoming semester. Following that, our students went aboard with Tor, our dive director, to be outfitted with the diving equipment that they would need for all of their underwater adventures for the trip. A quick lunch and the only thing left to do was cast off the dock lines! With Shea at the helm and myself providing guidance, we gently motored away from our dock in West End, Tortola, and made our way east up the Sir Francis Drake Channel. After going over as much as we could about boat life, everything from toilets to lights, We put up our staysail to practice line handling and learn about the basics of sail trim. Pulling into Great Harbour, Peter Island, we secured the boat to the Sea|mester mooring and got in the water for the first time for the swim tests and saltwater showers. The after-dinner agenda was all diving. Our new divers started out the theory portion of the course for their open water certification, and our more experienced divers sat in for a refresher. It was a spectacular day with many firsts, and it’s just the beginning!