Location: Statia
6:30, early in the morning, maximum efficiency, bagels, 7:45 in the dinging. Diving with sharks and barracudas by 9:00. What a morning. Our last full day before heading back to Antigua was spent underwater exploring shipwrecks with some of the nicest dive operators. We spent our surface interval snacking on sweet potato fries reading shark tales, and sipping extremely fresh coffee. Sarah, the captain’s wife, roasted the beans herself less than 24 hours before we were drinking them and hand-ground them that morning. The dive sites were artificial reefs grown on shipwrecks and over the past few years, have become covered in corals, sponges, marine worms, and homed much fish that we are using for the last few pages in our fish ID guides. Kate and Katie celebrated their ten-dive anniversary with a surprise visit from a reef shark. I broke my mask underwater; Steph so kindly swapped with me until Drew came to the rescue with a new mask strap. Waring also broke her mask, and Steph traded with her too. Then Drew broke his mask, and Steph came to the rescue yet again. This was a favorite dive for a lot of us.
We grabbed lunch on shore while some enjoyed parts of the brazil game before heading back to ocean star for our afternoon.
1/2 the crew was back on board, I took a nap, people ate lunch, and we all recharged before Oceanography with Heather. This was our last lecture for the semester before our exam next week. Time has flown by. After that, our designated Skipper, Chief Mate, Mate, Navigator, and Engineer made our passage plan for the upcoming student-led voyage back to Antigua tomorrow. Our final passage as a crew.
Photo 1: Syd at Golden Rock Dive Center
Photo 2: KT Drew and Nick on surface intervals
Photo 3: Meow!
Photo 4: Nick getting wet in the dinghy. What?
Photo 5: KT and her shark tales
Photo 6: Chopping!