Location: Nevis
Waking up to the sound of the anchor being pulled up isn’t exactly the best way to start the day when it’s supposed to be your job to wake everyone up. The day immediately got better, however, because as I was climbing out of the Fo’c’sle, I realized my fellow shipmate Cole had woken everyone up early, as the captain had decided for us to get underway for our next destination before breakfast. After the anchor was up, we left St. Kitts and were on our way to Nevis, although we took a slight detour in an effort to catch some fish. After reaching Nevis, we had a short oceanography class before heading to shore for some biking and kayaking. I went with the kayaking group, and we worked our way to a beach where we snorkeled for a bit. On the way to the beach, my kayaking buddy Evan flipped us over while attempting to put his phone in his back pocket. Luckily, we didn’t lose anything, and we both had Lifeproof cases on. After kayaking, we were given some free time to explore the island. Most of us went straight to the general store to stock up on snacks. Pretty soon, it was time to return to Ocean Star, but we had a pleasant surprise of hamburgers, fries, and coleslaw for dinner.
After dinner, we all did a quick cleanup in order to get back to shore to meet with the Nevis sea turtle research group on Lovers Bay. We joined the head of the group and several volunteers on a walk down the beach, which is the main nesting beach on the island for green, hawksbill, and the occasional leatherback turtle. We were lucky enough to soon find a huge female green sea turtle laying her eggs, and we got to watch the whole process, through to her returning to the ocean. Next, we went to check on a nest that had hatched a few days before because the group wanted to see if there were any unhatched eggs, as well as count the number of hatched eggs. In the process of excavating the nest, we found eight hatchlings that hadn’t been able to find their way out and had still been trapped below the sand. The Ocean Star crew was pretty excited to get to hold baby hawksbill turtles and then help them into the sea. For most of us, tonight, we saw the biggest turtle we have ever seen, as well as the smallest turtle we have ever seen, and it was a pretty cool experience.