Location: The Pitons, St. Lucia
Breakfast tacos this morning were the right way to start it off today before leaving for a deep dive excursion. The others and I had an amazing time being so far deep underwater (around 96ft) and seeing the different fish and sponges that live in those deep waters compared to the surface. I say that the experience was just breathtaking, from everything we saw to even just looking up from and seeing the bubbles that came out of every breath you took disappear. This will definitely be remembered forever as one of the top best things that I have ever done while being here on Ocean Star. Anyways, while we were diving, the rest of the students were studying, doing homework assignments, or collecting data for their research projects for oceanography. They were really focused and in the groove so well that I saw Carli in the exact same spot on the saloon bench when I got back from the dive; I’m not gonna lie, it was a bit scary. However, from all of us working hard in the morning, we sprung right into lunch, having a quinoa salad with some toppings like chickpeas and eggplant. With our bellies filled with deliciousness, we grabbed our books and headed right into Seamanship with Drew learning about how to use a VHF for the first time. It was really interesting learning what to say on the VHF and the different procedures with emergency calls compared to a ship-to-ship call. Later on, half and half dinner was prepared, and honestly, it was really great. The chefs did a wonderful job today in the kitchen, 10/10. We ended the day with the other group who were studying going on a night dive, which was pretty great. From what I heard, they saw many fish during their dive. Overall, today was a great day, and I’m so excited to see what happens next.
I miss you family and love you guys so much. I can’t wait to tell you everything that I have done so far and what I have accomplished while being here. <3
Photo 1-2: Ocean Star under the Pitons en route back from provisioning
Photo 3: Oceanography research project data collection
Photo 4: Pre-night dive excitement!