Location: Petit Piton, St. Lucia
Today, shipmate Claire celebrated her birthday IN STYLE. What better way to celebrate than on the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia? We started the morning with carrot bread (okay, let’s be honest, it was more like carrot cake with sprinkles, yes, sprinkles. They were pretty, too!) breakfast and then quickly set up our dive gear to dive the Superman Flight. This was essentially a drift dive, where, for the Advanced Divers, it was also their first deepwater dive (>20 m depth). We were fortunate to see everything from purple sponges to basket stars, spotted eels, and scorpionfish, among many many other things. In the afternoon, the Open Water divers had the opportunity to do the same dive but at a shallower depth. The groups that were not diving had the opportunity to explore the island while the Dive Master Candidates practiced rescue scenarios around Argo.
As this was our first chance to explore the island, our first stop was naturally (or unnaturally) a coffee shop/ cafe with wifi. Some of us were pleased to get local, french-pressed coffee, while others of us indulged in fresh fruit smoothies. The town itself is full of various colored buildings and locals selling bananas, coconuts, potatoes, and other vegetables on the street. I was most surprised to see people gathered around a specific cart that sold green coconuts. While the coconuts themselves were not so surprising, I am used to seeing the vendors punch a hole in a coconut, stick a straw through it, and then sell it to a local or a tourist passing by. This time, however, the vendor cut 1/3 of the coconut off, took a recycled water bottle from the buyer, and poured the coconut water into it. My guess was that he was going to continue cutting up coconuts until the bottle was filled up. We also saw three salt-crusted fish drying in the sun across from some of the houses we passed.
Claire’s birthday day ended with an incredible meal of pineapple-glazed hamburgers with garlic mashed potatoes. We officially celebrated with a tie-dyed confetti cake with tie-dyed frosting. Thank you to Claire for being born so we could enjoy this delicious dessert!
Afterward, we had one of our final basic seamanship classes so that we could continue practicing our navigation skills. Overall, St. Lucia is a pretty phenomenal place. I think everyone is looking forward to the tour of the island tomorrow. I am betting it will be beautiful!