Location: Petit Bayhaut
The team woke up today in keen anticipation of a day full of diving and island fun, and it didn’t disappoint. The hour after dinner last night was spent making Argo dive ready, which entailed getting the SCUBA cylinders out the laz, hanging BCDs on the lifelines, and putting the sails to bed.
Waking up in Petit Bayhaut was amazing! It is a very secluded, quiet spot with limited phone signal and a calming atmosphere. A handful of staff and students spent the hour before breakfast exploring the local reefs and marine life before Calum delivered a fantastic breakfast of quiche.
Today was Isaac’s first day SCUBA diving, which is awesome! This is such an amazing place to spend the whole day underwater! I took Isaac and Weiser, who had to finish his confined water dives, underwater for a few hours before lunch. They both nailed the sometimes daunting skills and were rewarded with focaccia sandwiches at lunch. The rest of the morning saw Talia, Benny, Cecily, Olympus, Sylver, and Annie begin their advanced open water SCUBA course with a deep dive led by Calum. After all of us successfully completed the dive, they are now certified to dive to 30m! EPIC! Meg took the rescue students, Zac, Maddy, Kara, and Darien, on their first few scenarios. Kiki, an already certified divemaster, caught up on some schoolwork.
The afternoon looked similar to the morning, with Isaac and Weiser finishing their confined water dives and their first open water dive. We explored the adjacent reef down to ~10m, and it was really special to see them completely immersed in the marine world for the first time. I cannot wait to hopefully finish their course with them tomorrow. The advanced open water students did their underwater navigation dive, followed by a fun dive for Kiki and the rescue students.
No time was wasted. Once we were all back on board a dingy filled with food, charcoal, Calum, Dave, Kiki and Olympus went ashore to light a fire! Tonight, in true South African spirit, head chef Calum whipped up a beach Braai, the South African version of a BBQ. While we waited for the food to cook, we played volleyball and frisbee and ran underwater holding a huge rock -Kackie’ss favorite game. Smores followed the hot dogs, along with yoga led by Shane and a capella song singing. A late night swim back to Argo and a late dishy pit finished the crew off for the evening.