Location: Portsmouth, Dominica
Today, we left our spot on the dock at Drop Anchor and moved to Portsmouth, Dominica. While en route, we practiced both the man overboard and fire safety drills. Will spotted our man overboard ring and kept watch until it was rescued by Ben and first mate Monika in the dinghy Irv. Then, for our fire drill, Bridget led us with the hose to put the fire out on the port bow. After our drills, I made it up to the crow’s nest for the first time since I have been on Ocean Star. Aylee and I stayed up there for about an hour while the chefs made lunch and the boat made its way into Portsmouth. From the crow’s nest, we spotted a huge turtle swimming next to the bowsprit as Brooke and Bridget sat bow watch. Once we arrived in Portsmouth, we got ourselves ready for our Oceanography lab on the Indian River. For this lab, we boarded two traditional rowboats, half the shipmates in one and half the shipmates in the other, and tested the temperature and salinity as we traveled three-quarters of a mile up the river. Considering the Indian River is an estuary, we gathered some interesting data when testing its brackish waters, finding the salinity at the surface to be around 3.2 parts per thousand when the salinity two meters down could be 33.3 parts per thousand due to the density stratification of the fresh and saltwater. For any fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the Indian River is also a river that was used in the second movie. There is a hut of one of the tributaries that appeared in the background. Day 50 ended with a cloudless sunset, dinner, and a Marine Bio class with Nick. It was a great day to begin our last month here in the Caribbean.