Location: Mountain Point, BVI
After a hearty breakfast of delicious muffins, fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola, those working on their Open Water certifications went for a dive and completed their section two skills, which included clearing full mask floods and an exercise where you pretend to run out of air and have to ascend using your buddy’s secondary regulator. Those that already had their certifications went for a fun dive. We then had a delicious lunch, followed by a surprise live-action scenario to test our Emergency First Responder skills. Following the drill, those working on their Open Water certifications went for another dive to complete their section three skills, which included underwater navigation with a compass and remaining neutrally buoyant. Meanwhile, those certified helped the captain unclog a drain in the cockpit using the fire hose. We then all took ocean showers and sat down to a scrumptious penne chicken casserole. After eating and cleaning up, we had our second oceanography class, in which we discussed the format for writing scientific papers, scientific presentations, and our group research project ideas.