Location: Savannah Bay, BVI
The day started with a soft wakeup, some delicious egg frittata, and going over the day’s schedule. This included those getting their open water scuba certification to watch some very important and interesting videos by PADI, and the advanced scuba certs completed their check-out dive. The open water certs then practiced assembling their scuba gear and getting ready for their first in-water lesson after lunch. Between lunch and afternoon activities, students jumped in the ocean from the boat to cool off. For lunch, we had a refreshing hot soup. After lunch, we had three different dive groups head out to complete their in-water lessons. I was a part of the open water group, and we were in the water all afternoon going over drills and skills. While the open-water students learned to breathe underwater, the advanced students made the unanimous decision to push all their homework to this evening and take the afternoon off sailing and paddle-boarding to a nearby beach. Savannah Bay is currently home to multiple student/kid voyages, including Argo, which lets the Ocean Star students use their sailboats and paddle boards. From what I’ve heard, they had a fun homework-free afternoon that only consisted of one casualty…a red Gonzaga visor ending up in the bottom of the bay.
When we finished diving, we made our way back to the Ocean Star and met up with the advanced scuba students. Everyone took their second ocean shower of the voyage as well as improved their backflips off the cap-rail. Also, diving makes you HUNGRY. Thankfully we had an amazing dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy! We ended the meal with a squeeze, where I asked everyone if they could go back and tell their younger self something. What would it be? There was an overall theme of wishing they tried new things more, took more risks, did not put much meaning behind others’ opinions of themselves, and invested in Apple and Netflix stock.
Finally, tonight the open water students will take their rigorous PADI exam, the advanced students will face the consequences of their procrastination, and it will be the second night of anchor watch. I will have my first shift from 3:00-4:00, so wish me luck!
AND, Happy Early Father’s Day, Dad!