Location: Dominica
Today began with an exhausted crew waking up to a rare spread of eggs and sausage, along with a much-needed pot of hot coffee for those feeling especially tired from the previous day’s adventures. After the crew indulged themselves with fuel for the day ahead, we readied the vessel for a short voyage to a new location about 20 minutes away. Upon arriving at the new site, we were given some time to recuperate and study for the upcoming midterm, which will take place tomorrow. Although lots of studying took place, many of the shipmates also decided to take a break from the books and enjoy some diving off of the vessel in order to cool off from the scorching heat in the bay. Today definitely seemed like one of the hottest days of the trip, and many of us had sunburns to prove it. Luckily at three, an intense rain shower swept through and cooled everyone off right before we left Ocean Star for a trip up one of the 365 local rivers in Dominica. We were picked up by a tour company called Cobra River tours and sat in rows as we embarked on the tour. On the way up the river, we took samples of the salinity of the water at different levels, which was very interesting to learn about and made us all feel like we were Indian Jones or some type of cool scientist (maybe that was just me)… On the tour, we saw where they filmed one of the scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean and spotted as well many interesting species of wildlife and plant life. After about three hours, we all safely returned to Ocean Star for a big dinner of Mexican-style cuisine. Since the pressure is on for tomorrow’s midterm, everyone is busy reading and catching up on their Oceanography for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we set sail for Guadeloupe, and spirits are high.