Location: Bonaire
Pirate class and pirate glass
Its day 19 already, and I feel like the time has flown by so fast! This morning, we got woken up by Ben with a classic Good morning, good morning, good morning! which was nice, but there goes my plan of waking everyone by blasting Drunken Sailor on my speaker (way hay and up she rises early in the morning !!!). It was great to finally get a full night of sleep after our 4-day-long passage from Dominica. Although my watch team is great, and the night skies out on the open ocean are incredible, I do appreciate getting some uninterrupted rest.
After our breakfast of bacon, eggs, and English muffins, we got a choice to go to shore time, a morning dive, or hang out on the boat, and I decided to stay back to catch up on some schoolwork. Of course, doing schoolwork is not my favorite thing, but I found a way to make it fun for myself, and I think my presentation turned out pretty great (I got really creative with my slides stay tuned). Plus, doing work on the deck of a sailboat while at a harbor in Bonaire is way cooler than just sitting in my dorm back at college. Being on a boat just makes everything so much more fun and cooler, even things like school and chores arent so bad once I remember Im doing them on a boat.
After lunch, it was time to do my navigation certification dive. I cant believe Im only one night dive away from being a certified ADVANCED open water diver!!! Ive heard Bonaire has some of the best dive sites in the world, and so far, both dives Ive done have been awesome. Yesterdays dive had a small boat wreck, and I got to see lots of cool fish in a coral reef. On the nav dive, we all split up. At one point, my dive buddy Harry and I spotted an EAGLE RAY swimming by in shallow water! It was so cool and Im pretty sure everyone else was jealous, I just wish I got a picture. We also got to walk around the dock with a bucket on our heads and use the compass and our steps to navigate. It looked really funny, especially to the other people around the marina, who had no idea what was going on!
When I had some free time, I walked around the beach and found PIRATE GLASS! Its really old, dark sea glass that looks like a rock until you shine a light through it, and you can see the true color shining through. It could be from the 1800s or earlier, which is super cool. I hope an actual pirate drank from that bottle at some point!
For dinner, we had a sign-out night, which meant we all got to eat at a nice restaurant. I got the catch of the day and ate it so fast; the portions were tiny, though! Thanks to both Maya W and Maya L for giving me some of their fries lol. One thing thats great about this island is their limeade, it tastes so fresh Ive never had anything like it. Then we went into town, and I got to eat gelato and then hang out with everyone afterward.
(Fun fact: Im actually writing this on the 20th day since I got back too late after dinner to blog, but youll hear all about today from Graham)
Love you, and Happy Birthday, Mom!!! I miss everyone back home, and I wish I could have a boat full of all my friends and family and my cats. That would be awesome.
Until next time,
Morgan