Location: Petite Piton, St Lucia
I was fortunate to have the 5-6 am mooring watch today because it gave me time before 7:00 wakeup to warm up my singing voice. At 7, Hedrek and I woke up the crew with a duet of Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson. Didn’t forget to sing to the fo’c’sle this time! While our two-chef team of Mackenzie and Amanda tackled breakfast (Mia, the third, is nursing an ankle injury back at Rodney bay. We’ll reunite with her soon!), a portion of us set up our dive gear for another PADI advanced open water dive: the DEEP DIVE (dun dun duuuuuun!!!). Group 1’s kits were set up before breakfast, and we jumped in the dive boat driven by the local marine rangers around 9:30. We boated into the shadow of the other Piton mountain, Gros Piton, and drift-dived over a site called Coral Garden. We dove down to 27.2 meters/95 feet and witnessed a red tomato change color to green with the depth! Attempts were made to eat the tomato at depth. We also cracked an egg to see the pressure hold it together, but Sam was a little enthusiastic and ended up totally crushing the egg. After surfacing, we got some free fruit from a passing boating salesman thanks to the rangers (willingly, I promise!) and returned to Ocean Star.
During the dive, our guide David had been spearfishing lionfish, a damaging invasive species in the Caribbean. When we got to the boat, he wanted to show us how to remove the venomous spines that protrude from their fins in order to cook them, so he asked for a bucket. I brought one over, and he went to work with some scissors. Unfortunately, the bucket I unthinkingly selected was the laundry bucket…whoops! The bucket has since been thoroughly sanitized and poses no threat. We also ended up with two harmless lionfish bodies, which came into play later in the day. After this eventful switch over, group 2 then took their dive. After group 2 returned, we had lunch, which included dessert! Cool whip salad: a layering of marshmallows, fruit, and pudding.
Throughout the morning, the crew in whichever group was not actively diving began gathering data for our Oceanography group research projects: long-term assignments that we will be working on until the last weeks of our voyage. For these projects, we make use of the scientific equipment on board, such as microscopes, ph gauges, quadrats, transects, and more. During the time of the first diving session, Ela provided Ash and Amanda (two of our staff) an opportunity to undergo an extra deep dive when she accidentally dropped the flowmeter in the water while prepping for a snorkel, and in her haste to retrieve it, ended up dropping a quadrat as well. Sarah decided to join in and dropped a second quadrat. Ash and Amanda suited up this afternoon while we had oceanography class and dove down to get the gear back. The tricky bit is that since we’re on the edge of a mountain, the ocean floor slopes away rapidly, and our divers found the gear at nearly 45 meters/147 feet!
After welcoming Ash and Amanda back on board, the students had a seamanship class on navigation, scratching the surface of course-plotting using charts and Portland plotters (Breton plotters, in Hedrek’s version). Following the class, a curious group of budding scientists learned how to dissect the lionfish, headed by Alex and Sunny, who are doing a research project on fish stomach content. Sam demonstrated the dissection, and the crowd tried identifying organs as they emerged. There was some serious excitement when they discovered a fish inside of the lionfish’s stomach.
After a much-needed hand wash, we enjoyed Mackenzie and Amanda’s dinner of quesadillas. After our nightly squeeze, the two-person chef team whipped out a *second* dessert of the day, cookies! The adventurous among us (food-wise, that is, we’re all adventurers here!) dipped our cookies in lunch’s cool whip salad.
Tomorrow we sail back to Rodney Bay and dock for another night. I can’t speak for the others here, but I’m immensely grateful for every day I spend experiencing new and exciting activities, seeing breathtaking land or waterscapes, and sharing time and adventures with everyone on Ocean Star. Once again, tomorrow looms up, mysterious and full of promise and potential. As the shanty band, The Dreadnoughts, sing, “The anchor’s on board, and the cable’s all stored to be rollicking randy dandy oh!”
Photos:
1) Sam briefs Alex, Savannah, Brett, Sunny, Kelly, and Sarah before lionfish dissection
2) Sarah, Brett, Sam, Fizz (Isabel), Rae, and Sierra in the lunch dishy pit
3) Ash and Amanda showing off their sunken treasure
4) It’s a chart, not a map! Brett, Fizz, Sierra, and Ela navigatin’
5) David clips the lionfish
6) Alex practices being fish bait
7) Head chef Mackenzie and sous chef Amanda baking cookies
8 and 9) Sunset over dinner in paradise
10) Deckies hoist Irv, our rescue dinghy, onto Ostar’s “hip” for the night