Location: Bequia, St. Vincent
WOOHOO!! Another day of fun in the sun with diving and banana bread and ‘studying’ and island tunes!! Let me back up a bit, though. Really, it all started last night when Steph woke me up at 11:00 to have me sign back in from our sign-out night. Luckily she came bearing good news: wake up was at 8:00 AM – WE WERE SLEEPING IN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 34 DAYS!! Still half asleep, I gave Steph a huge hug and rolled back over, so happy to have one extra hour in my bunk.
To continue the mood, this morning’s alarm featured ‘Working for the Weekend’ (not really us with our later start 😉) and music by The Beach Boys (duh). Teddy (best known as Fred on this vessel) and her hard-working sous chefs made granola and milk, and fruit. Absolutely delicious! Although this morning’s menu was supposed to include banana bread, our late night last night paired with the heavy snoozers of this morning didn’t quite put that on the front burner. Fear not, though, we were spoiled with banana bread dessert after chicken caesar wraps for lunch. We were a little concerned that there wouldn’t be enough banana bread for everyone…but I think we’ll be okay (see photo 12).
Between breakfast and lunch, the first dive group practiced their “boat” diving at the neighboring reef while the rest of us caught up on schoolwork or even more sleep – except for Fred, who was blessing the saloon with free smells from the galley. After lunch clean-up (which included the Surf’s Up soundtrack), we had a Leadership class to which Maxime led a discussion about different characteristics in leaders. After class, the second dive group headed out to complete their boat dive. My Oceanography research group and I saw this as an opportunity to get some data regarding coral abundance at different reefs. Turns out, being new to diving and trying to be a scientist is really hard. But it also makes for quite the entertainment. You could describe our dive as rather chaotic… The research group was juggling transects and quadrats while Quinn and Alexis were doing their own thing and Scuba Sam and Maxime were too distracted by fish while Staff Sam was trying to gather all of us at the same time. It was an experience.
Back home, we went (with data!!!!!!!!) for pesto pasta and garlic bread. Tonight we’ll be finishing The Life Aquatic, and then I’m sure everyone will be off to bed early because no way do we get another 8:00 AM wake up, at least not for another 40 days. I leave you with these lovely photos and a shoutout to Jennifer (Eamon’s mom) as I have included many more photos of Eamon – he loves and misses you very much!
The Mountain/Coach
Photo 1 – Steph being a rockstar dive instructor
Photo 2 – Leadership class!!
Photo 3 – Scuba Sam with excellent style and the best salty pit chair
Photo 4 – Eamon.
Photo 5 – Eamon.
Photo 6 – Eamon
Photo 7 – Maxime being a fantastic dryer
Photo 8 – Tate and Scuba Sam with sleeping Asta
Photo 9 – Tate with her morning cup of coffee
Photo 10 – Logan ready to dive
Photo 11 – Tate ready to dive
Photo 12 – Fred and her masterpiece banana bread with Lucia eyeing it in the background
Photo 13 – The chaotic dive featuring Maxime’s beautiful diving technique
Photo 14 – The Mountain and Sophie being scientists underwater
Photo 15 – Tate in her music element