Location: Roseau, Dominica
Another early morning on O-Star! The tired crew was woken up to get dive gear ready before breakfast in preparation for our morning under the sea! We ate, cleaned, zipped up our wetsuits, then dinghied over to Dive Dominica by 8:30. With two consecutive dives ahead of us, we were excited to meet the staff of Dive Dominica and head out to the dive sites! Once aboard their boats and hooked up to our tanks, we were briefed on our first dive, which was a deep dive! After 15 minutes at 100 feet below, we had a half-hour surface interval while we motored over to the next dive site. The next dive was a scenic dive in the volcanic thermal vents! We couldn’t have asked for better visibility! The water was so perfectly clear, and I had never seen more beautiful fish in my entire life! As marine biologists in training, we all put our classroom knowledge to the test and studied all the different types of coral and sponges along the ocean floor! It was amazing to see the change in color underwater with depth and feel the hot water coming from the hydrothermal vents!
We had a lot of fun underwater! On the ride back to O Star, we all agreed that our morning was filled with breathtaking deep-sea sights and lots of underwater play! After we hosed off, we threw on some dry clothes and headed into town for some shore time! Most of the crew went to get lunch and see the town. Jake, Matt, and I went provisioning with Tor. It was quite a hectic cultural experience! We battled the locals for shopping carts and took the divide-and-conquer approach to the grocery list. It was intense, but we ended up with four overflowing carts and a receipt that was taller than me! Success!