Location: Bequia, Grenadines
Today, for the third time, we woke up in the picturesque Admiralty Bay of Port Elisabeth, Bequia. The houses here surrounding the harbor are clustered like rainbow sprinkles all down the hillside. It’s a great atmosphere, literally: the wind brings in numerous passing rainstorms a day and, in the lulls, blows through the town in refreshing gusts that are almost cool. The day began with our MTE midterm, which we had voraciously studied for the evening previously. We then had OCB, wherein Nick free-dove to get us some samples of sponges. It turned out they were host to a few tiny brittle stars and a small crab, all of which we inspected under our (brand-new) dissecting microscope. The rest of the day was relaxed; we had the freedom to plan it ourselves, balancing out shore time, lunch, and also the option of a research dive to work on our projects or a fun dive at either a wrecked tugboat or a reef. Of course, being dutiful students, we all chose to do research dives. The boys went to the wreck in the morning, leaving the girls to take a relaxed tour/shopping experience of the small island town that we were just starting to become familiar with. On return to our vessel, courtesy of me (haphazardly driving the dinghy), we hauled out our dive gear and set it up, wrote dive plans, and then battled the current to the reef. The reef was beautiful and held more marine life than we had previously seen in one place, including some form of a lobster-like animal that resembled a spider. Afterward, we had a great chicken BBQ dinner down in the saloon due to another rainstorm. Then, we headed back to shore for a night out. It was the offseason; most bars were closed or just lonely, but after some wandering, some of us came across a small local place (the loud music led us to its location) where we found what I’d like to believe to be the real island scene. The bartender showed us a newspaper clipping deeming the place the ‘Best bar in the Caribbean’ (!). We danced the night away in the midst of loud music and laughter, then when the time came, reluctantly returned to the dock where the dinghy was waiting to bring us home.