Location: Falmouth, Antigua
We woke up to a great breakfast of eggs and bacon. Some of the students then had to immediately spring into action for a rescue diver scenario. Amanda was missing underneath the boat while Carolyn was panicking and worrying about her friend. The other two staff of Jon and Amy also acted as close friends that panicked and jumped into the water in an attempt to help their unconscious friend. The staff did a very good job of simulating the panic of a real-world situation with frantic and irrational actions. We got everyone out of the water and provided the necessary medical assistance that would have been needed in that situation. We passed the scenario, and Brit, Ridge, Joseph, Steffen, Jill, and I successfully became rescue divers today!
We then made our way to Antigua Sailing Academy for some dingy sailing. Jenelle gave us a brief overview of how to sail the little dinghies and then sent us off in pairs to sail around a part of the harbor. We all had an amazing time sailing but to varying levels of success. Jade, Kennedy, Eli, and Miranda seemed to think it was swim-time with all of the time they spent capsized. Matt, Kaiden, Joseph, and Steffen spent most of the time pirating other boats by boarding them and capsizing their dinghies. Matthew and I worked very well together but were capsized by the staff dingy, comprised of Jon and Carolyn. You should not worry, though, because we did get them back and capsize them in return.
There were many other great moments among each dingy pair. After the dingy sailing, we had a quick lunch at a local restaurant. We then got back to Ocean Star and began the largest clean of the boat we have ever done. We are attempting to reverse time and power clean Ocean Star to its original condition. We began by cleaning a lot of the nooks and crannies of the boat and taking out and cleaning our PFDs. We will not be done with cleaning until the day before we go home. After we were done cleaning for the day, we turned to a moment of leisure and turned the boom of the mainsail into a swing into the ocean. It was a great way to relax after a lot of cleaning. We then had the privilege of hosting some of Amy’s family on board as they got to see Ocean Star and meet all of us. Finally, we had a delicious dinner of burgers and hot dogs, and now we are all full and sleepy after a packed day.
Images: 1. Jenelle is showing us the ropes of how to sail a small dingy. 2. Getting ready to sail 3. All of our cleaned PFDs 4. All of our cleaned BCDs 5. Captain Carolyn selflessly testing the boom swing’s safety