Location: Peter Island, BVI
The answer: All of them. This morning started out a little differently than most. I got out of bed at about 6:55 and headed down into the saloon to wake up everyone at 7, one of the main duties of the skipper of the day. However, when I got down below, I noticed something odd; all of the bunks were empty. I quickly went to the foc’s’cle and peaked down, and the same was true; empty bunks. My mind quickly ran through the possibilities of things that could have happened: Did I forget there was an optional sunrise hike? Was everyone having a sleepover on the bowsprit? It took me about 5 seconds to figure out the one place where everyone could actually fit: the Laz. In case you don’t know, the Laz is the area at the stern of Ocean Star below deck where we store scuba gear, dock lines, paint and science gear, and apparently, sometimes the students. They had apparently all woken up at 6 am and spent the past hour down there in order to prank me during wake-up time (I have a tendency to wake up early and do yoga on deck before breakfast, so they wanted to make sure they got down there before I showed up; of course, today I was lazy and didn’t actually get up until seven haha). I have to admit, watching them all come out of the Laz was pretty hilarious. It was reminiscent of clowns coming out of a tiny car; they just kept coming and coming. The good news was everyone was already awake and ready to go for the day, so we quickly got breakfast passed up and the shade tarp put up for the day. The morning was then spent studying for the oceanography final exam, which we took after lunch. After the exam, our divemasters in training did a mapping dive while a group of 6 of us went to shore for a hike, and some others stayed on board to practice their navigation skills for MTE. The hike was great; it takes you to the end of Peter Island and back, with beautiful views of the ocean and the surrounding islands all along the way. We all enjoyed the scenery and were constantly stopping to check out some sort of wildlife. Back on board, we enjoyed shower time, dinner, and a squeeze question in the form of a Mad Libs story of Ocean Star. Everyone has a crazy amount of energy, and I am not sure why, but it is making for an entertaining evening so far, and hopefully, they’re keeping it up for their marine biology review tonight. That is one thing I have to say I love about this group; we know how to have a good time with anything. Whether it is waking up at 6 am to spend an hour in the Laz together in order to prank the staff (I am still amazed they actually did that), taking silly pictures with the photo booth during a study break, chasing each other with giant caterpillars during a hike, yelling random things in unison while hauling up Exy, or doing crazy dives off the cap rail during shower time, we are constantly surrounded by camaraderie and laughter that my friends make a good crew.