Location: Five Islands, Antigua
It was another fantabulous day on Ocean star! Waking up this morning and coming up on deck, we were greeted by a double rainbow before breakfast. Once clean up and breakfast were done, we had an intro to Oceanography with Sam, where we learned what the class would be like and what assignments we would be doing over the course of the semester. After we had the intro, the open-water students finished the last PADI videos and are one step closer to taking their first breaths underwater. While they did that, the certified divers were finally able to get in the water to do our refresher dive, even though the visibility wasn’t very good again today. After lunch, all the divers worked on RDP (recreational dive plans) tables and got better at them. Before dinner, we did our first marine science lab, where we got to check out all of the equipment that we would use for different labs during the semester. While doing the lab, one of the groups who was looking for plankton and other microorganisms found one tiny microscopic thing moving, and we all spent a good while trying to see it and then trying to identify what it was using our ID book. We couldn’t quite figure it out, though, since getting it on the slide was incredibly difficult. Not only was the food all day delish, but it was also the first day of students being head chef, and Sara did an amazing job. We got to readjust the anchor a few times today due to the wind and swells we have been getting, and we had another absolutely beautiful day in Antigua.