Location: Dominica
Today, we left the very beautiful Martinique to make our way to Dominica! The morning started off with a quick breakfast before we got underway and quickly encountered some unpredictable winds that gave us some great opportunities to do some very active and hands-on sail handling. The wind kept us on our toes as we left the shadow of the Montagne Pele, which is the volcano on the island of Martinique, and made our way up the Dominica channel. On our short 4-hour passage between islands, we had a pod of Pilot Whales circle our boat for a few minutes before we had lunch. Once we arrived in Dominica, the cloud cover that had been blocking us from the Caribbean sun in Martinique had left, and we were hit with the blazing rays that made some of us crispier than others. We had a fast and efficient sail drop and put the boat to bed before it was time to present the research projects that most of us had been working on since day 20 of the program. The presentations ranged from the effects of parrot fish poo on the production of sand in atolls to the nutrient content of water close to island shores. The groups worked hard, and we are all very excited to have only two more assignments left for the rest of this exciting trip. We wrapped up presentations and jumped into the water in Dominica for the first time and had a touch of free time before dinner. An unfortunate 24-hour stomach bug has made its way to Argo and is taking victims swiftly. As I am writing this we have already had three unfortunate souls fall victim to it but we are taking great care of our fellow crew mates as we hope they will do for us when it eventually catches up to the rest of the crew.
The sunset tonight was award-winning and took us right into squeeze, where I had a fun surprise planned for the group. We did a rock, paper, scissors battle where the winner would lead us in a game of hide and seek! Sylver was the winner of rock, paper, scissors and gave us 60 seconds to run around the boat and hide. Some hid in the bilges while others hid in sail covers. Dave climbed to the tip of the bow sprit while Darien and Eli hid under the dinghies. In the end, Calum and I were the victorious winners as we clung to the swim ladder together for at least 15 minutes before being found. We have a few assignments due tonight, so the rest of the evening will be filled with some quiet work time.