Location: Gorda Sound
As my first time as skipper, I managed to begin the day by dropping a water bucket overboard. Thankfully, we were at anchor, and retrieving it turned out to be relatively simple since we started out the day with two open water dives. Diving, I think I found another love in my life. It’s so exciting to be able to explore the other 2/3’s of the world we live on. I can’t properly convey how much that gladdens my world. I wish I could, but well, corny as it may sound, words aren’t quite enough to describe it. The two dives of today were mainly instructional in how to deal with the obstacles encountered while diving, but they were still amazing. Doing flips on the sea floor is intense! After lunch, we began preparing for our sail from Mountain Point to Gorda Sound. Before getting up the sails, we had a fire drill aboard to set us through the paces of all our designated jobs. Today, we got the mainsail and foresail up at the same time, the same with stay-sail and jib, which was a first for us. A few enjoyable hours of sailing ended with a man-over-board drill once again to set us through our paces and make sure we knew our responding roles. We took in the sails and lowered the anchor upon arrival, and then it was Shower Time. If the masses have not already been informed, a shower aboard includes jumping off the side of the ship, climbing up that same side and applying all necessary cleaning liquids, jumping off the side once more to wash off, and then getting freshwater rinse from the deck hose. All done, of course, in swimsuits. It’s a lot of fun. Food is one of my favorite things, and dinner was delicious: chicken pone with Alfredo sauce and some garlic bread. I give a thumbs up to the cooks of the day (Chef-Boy-R-Danny and Matty Rob)! Dive tables were the next course of study after dinner for those on Ocean Star who were not already certified to dive. It’s basically a chart to help divers manage their dive times and nitrogen level intake. And with that, we wound down the end of the day. Good night and good day from Ocean Star!