Location: Antigua
Early this morning, the rescue divers had one of their practice scenarios. All the rescue divers have woken up this morning abruptly to a panicked diver (Josh ) and an unresponsive diver (Amanda) in the water. Ridge jumped in wearing sweat pants and brought Josh to safety, and Jill jumped in and brought Amanda to the dingy where faux CPR was started. After a startling wake-up, we began our day we a rich butter-filled and frosted flake-covered french toast cooked by head chef Eli and his two sous chefs Matt (aka Garfather) and Kaiden. There was also MEGATOAST for breakfast this morning, which was a compilation of all the failed french toast attempts and an assortment of mystery ingredients. Many of us felt a bit seasick due to the combination of a very heavy breakfast and some bumpy seas on our motor from Jolly Harbor back around to Falmouth. After our heavy breakfast, we finished emergency first responder training, practicing different scenarios.
We raised anchor and headed southbound, with Antigua off our port, only averaging 2 knots at times because of the current and the heavy waves. We anchored and were either shuttled to shore to have shore time or to a dive site to go diving. Onshore we went to a crepe restaurant where we were served delicious freshly squeezed juice by an extroverted bartender named Karen. She was very passionate about her craft. We learned about fruits growing in Antigua like sorrel, described as a delicious purple flower, which we got to try. Back on the boat, we had a long shower time, where both Matt and Ridge did full slapping belly flops into the water. Dinner was tasty. We ate BBQ, pulled pork, and mashed potatoes. Our squeeze question tonight: what was your favorite hike. Many of us chose the Crater hike in St. Vincent, the boiling lake hike, or Mt. Kwakwa, all spectacular journeys. All of our classes ended last night, and we are all happy to catch up on a little sleep. Today was a great day.