Location: Dominica
My day started at 6 with an anchor watch with Rob. When we got on deck, there was already some light out, and everything was so serene. I was glad to have an anchor watch in the morning because it was so peaceful and quiet, apart from the collection of roosters trying to wake the island up. For wake-up, I played some reggae music, specifically World-a-Reggae, Three Little Birds, and Get Up, Stand Up. In the morning, the people who are getting their Rescue diving certification meet to practice skills in the water. Also, we are doing a student-led passage to Antigua tomorrow, so everyone who was elected for student positions started getting ready for the passage. The three Navigators, Erik, Chelsea, and me, chief mate Jo, and captain Rob, met in the salon to look at the wind and decide on our course to Antigua. The navigators charted a course, knowing that it would change once we got underway.
For lunch, Taylor, her sous chefs Rob and Greta, and breadmaker Daisy made fried sweet plantains, coconut rice, and tofu. The plantains were so delicious! Pancho also dropped by some smoked octopus and eel that everyone got to try. They tasted like jerky and were really good. After lunch, we got ready for our dive charter in the afternoon. At 12:30, we started the first dinghy runs to Dive Dominica, which isnt very far from where Argo is anchored. Once we were all on the dive boat, we each claimed two tanks and set up one of the tanks for the first dive. The first dive site was around 20 minutes away. Callum brought his dive camera and took amazing pictures underwater.
The dive was super cool! We saw so many fish that we recently learned in our species ID quizzes for the Caribbean. It was really cool to actually know what kinds of fish and coral we were looking at. Amanda was super excited to see a baby smooth trunkfish, which is the most adorable fish ever. The corals came in all shapes and sizes. After the first dive, we relaxed on the boat for a bit, set up our second tank, and then headed over to the second dive site. This dive was called the champagne reef because of the gas bubbles that come up from the ground and look like champagne bubbles. This dive was also super cool; we saw even more fish and coral. We headed back to Argo after diving and ocean-showered. It was super fun, and the sky was beautiful. We had a mini photo shoot on the ladder. Then, we had chicken tacos for dinner, and it started pouring, but luckily, mega tarp protected us from being completely drenched. The dive charter was so fun today. It was so nice laying on the front part of the boat under the sun when we were headed to the different dive sites.