Location: Deshaies
Today was full of academics! We woke up as usual at 7:00 am to a range of different cereals to choose from. The dishy crew was grateful. Marine biology started at 9:30 am. We learned about different kinds of coral and what adaptations they have to live in different temperatures and depths, also why coral gets bleached. Seamanship: 10:30 am, we learned how to convert base 60 times in base 100 so that we could use it in different equations. We split up into groups and charted distance based on time and speed. Charting is like doing a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, frustrating and rewarding at the same time. Seamanship came with rain, which sounded nice against the tarps above us. Lunch at 12:00 pm, we ate delicious mac and cheese prepared by head chef Eli. We ate down below because of the rain, which isn’t usually permitted. The steward: Joseph had to do an extra good clean-up, which he did, and we were all grateful for it.
Study time, 2:00 pm, the workload is piling up, and it was great to have some time to catch up. Study time merged into shower time, and after we all felt clean, we had a group meeting. The group meeting resolved any conflicts that had emerged as stress got high within the group due to school work, tight spaces, or any other reasons. We have moved past the honeymoon phase or polite neighbor phase, and now we are more like siblings who bicker sometimes. We all anonymously wrote down what was working and not working in our group and read them aloud in a group. Amy read us a short story after about a boy who kept letters from his all classmates. The whole experience was very impactful, and we all left feeling a bit warm and fuzzy. Dinner at 7:00 pm, we ate cheeseburgers and fries prepared again by Eli and his two sous chefs Kaiden and Matt. We ended dinner with a squeeze, sharing our favorite home-cooked meals, and played a speed round off the telephone. It started as I like octopuses and Nemo and ended with I hate salmon and love Matt. Now we are about to start yet another seamanship class, and we prepare for our impending NavMaster exam.
Pictured: Awesome rainbow that accompanied the rain; swimming fun during shower time.