Location: Dominica
First day waking up in Dominica! After lots and lots of rain on all our night watches, we were blessed with an 8 am wake up It was lovely. I woke everyone up with some loud reggae music which I am sure they all appreciated very highly. We then had breakfast bagels with eggs, sausage,s and beans. Thank you, chefs. Next, we got ready for our second marine biology lecture given by Ben. Today, we were learning about the fundamentals of ecology, looking into factors that affect organisms’ population density, how to measure populations, etc. It was really interesting. We then went straight into another class on oceanography given by Brooke. We learned about tectonic plates and the way they move around, also very interesting. We then had lunch grilled cheese sandwiches! Thank you again, chefs.
Then, we started our full deck cleanup, starting from the bow and working our way down in sections. Brooke was playing bangers on her speaker, and we all had a lot of fun scrubbing the deck. Henry got a bit too soapy at some point, slipped,d and dropped his scrubber into the ocean. Fear not, though, Graham saved the day and jumped in. While we were all getting an arm workout, Emma and her minions went into Dominica to provision. They filled five shopping carts full of food and some nice men helped push them from the supermarket to the dock. A few trips later, they reached the boat with us, all ready to unpack everything and put them in various places around the boat, mostly under people’s bunks. Maya and I were so happy we found Lucky Charms dupes!!!
Then, the divers got their kit ready to go on a deep-water dive off the mooring line off the bow of the boat. They reached 100ft I believe and, from what I hear, had a very awesome time. They also managed to catch not 1 but 3 lionfish, an invasive species to the Caribbean. When they brought them back to the boat, Brooke did a little dissection, showing us all the organs. It sounds absolutely vile, but it was so cool to see marine biology in person, putting our learning into tangible acts.
Emma, Brooke, Harrison, and I then made dinner in the galley (not the kitchen). It was chicken parm, a meal new to me but it did NOT disappoint. Then, onto a double squeeze because we missed yesterday, and I enjoyed hearing about people’s B+ superpowers and random interesting facts I did not know that most koalas have chlamydia. Although it rained on and off throughout the day, this ended up being a great day, as per usual on Vela.
Shoutout to Jay, Brookes, Maisy, Jake, Morgan, Harry, and me, who are now open water certified divers!!!!! Wooooooooo!!!!
Sending all my love to my family!! And u, Henry x