Location: Galleon Beach, Antigua
Whats up, guys? To start today, I woke everybody up at 7 am for a delicious coffee cake breakfast. Then, we all started the day strong with some diving. While half of us continued with getting the open water diver certifications, those of us already certified began working on our rescue diver certification. Myself and the other certified divers got to enjoy a bit of beach time after finishing up with rescue diver videos. The sole purpose of going ashore is to get some nice cold water. After a nice hour of beach time, everybody returned to the boat to eat some Mac and cheese for lunch. Following lunch was a bunch more diving! The open water divers got to dive deeper today under the boat for their first two open water dives. Our certified divers were given the opportunity to help build and see the coral trees near our ship. We worked on tying some coral fragments to clips, which were then taken underwater to the trees and clipped on. This area went through a big coral bleaching last year. The group we worked with had harvested the types of corals that survived the bleaching, those being the ones we fragmented and planted. The goal is to see if these corals can remain resilient and be planted elsewhere later on. After the open water divers and our group of coral farmers returned to the boat, we took our daily ocean showers. Chicken tikka masala, rice, and naan for dinner followed our showers. While Im typing this, everyone else is completing their jobs for the day. Now, we are all going to meet for our first introduction to academics! Follow along for whats next!!