Location: Admiralty Bay, Bequia
Today began with a wonderful breakfast made by Olivia and her sous chefs. Once we finished eating, we began to put our dive kits together in preparation for our 3rd training dive of the advanced course (only two more left)! We split into two dive groups, got a wonderful briefing from Freddie (and then the real one from Heather), and then headed off to the site. Between the two groups, we saw a wide variety of fish and other marine animals, from an octopus to a honeycomb cowfish and even a seahorse (that was not brought to the attention of the rest of the group, much to Heather’s dismay). Post-dive, we had a great lunch and then got right into classes. We started off the academic afternoon with a fish ID quiz, followed by another taxonomy lecture, and finally, we learned more about seawater! After class, we had some time to get work done and enjoy a brief moment of downtime. Music played through the surround sound speakers, and then what we just discovered was the scent of warm brownies filled the air. Spoons were, of course, licked clean. Some groups began to dive deeper into their research projects, getting more associated with the equipment that they would be using for the next 20 or so days. There was even some microscope action. There was a brief moment of panic when Luc lost his antibiotics, and the potential for a whole boat search loomed in the air. Luckily, they were located in his bunk. Before dinner, we enjoyed our daily boat shower, something I know we all look forward to. Overall, it was another fantastic day of learning and diving aboard Ocean Star.