Location: Saint Vincent (13'07.83' N, 61'12.29' W)
Hi from Saint Vincent! Today was a great combination of fun, educational, and relaxing. In the morning, we split into two groups: one to go diving, and the other to have some time to work on research projects, which are coming up too quickly. Then the groups switched before lunch. The first diving group had fun exploring a coral reef rock side and were laughing about all the fish they saw, and I’m guessing the second group had fun too. Once people had finished their dives, studying, and had eaten lunch together, we had a special guest Stephen who is the director of the Saint Vincent & the Grenadines Environmental Fund here in Saint Vincent. He came aboard our sailboat to give us a brief lecture and answer our many questions. We learned about the threats Saint Vincent is facing, and the sustainable and resourceful solutions they’ve found so far. This NGO’s primary focus seemed to be protecting their turtle populations, working with local fishers and whalers, but as Stephen described, they also work to build capacity within the local communities to engage in conservation. After saying goodbye to Stephen and thanking him for the visit, we went straight into sail prep to get ourselves to Saint Lucia. During sail prep, some notable moments were that we found a very large moth similar to the tattoo on Maddy’s leg, it started heavily raining for 10 minutes, and Shane and Sylver looked a little too similar today, but besides that, we were efficient and were done before dinner! Once we finished our pasta dinner and had a bit of the apple dessert, we initiated cleanup. Before cleanup, however, Talia started cracking people’s backs by having them lie on the deck, and she would press on their backs quickly, which worked wonders. Some would say it worked too well, seeing as a few of us could not get up again for a minute, but thank you, Talia, it definitely worked. Now we have cleaned up and are putting up the sails for a good night of sailing, making use of the good winds, and plan to arrive at our next adventure tomorrow at sunrise!
Sending all of my love to everyone back home and friends!