Location: Dominica
Yooooo…
Hi everyone. Today was great fun. We started off the day at a normal time, 7:00 am, somewhat on the dot, ate a wonderful breakfast burrito, and prepared for lab time. Lab was a salinity and visibility test in a nearby estuary! We took the dingy over to the shore, where we met a guide, and all hopped into a wooden rowboat. From there, we took a salinity and visibility test at the mouth of the river, and then our guide rowed us away from the ocean and upriver. It was a beautiful lush rainforest/jungle with some huge trees with big roots and lots of crabs. You may be thinking OH! That sound kinda like where Jack-sparrow went to see Calypso in the Pirates of the Caribbean. And OH! Believe it or not, it was. As we paddled upriver, we passed by the spot where that scene was filmed and saw the Calypso hut. It was a bit run-down, but it definitely looked the exact same as the movie! Throughout this whole excursion, we had been collecting data and recording it on slates.
As we made it towards the top end of the river, we took one last sample and ended up at a dock and a small little cafe/bar. We hopped off the boat here for a short pit stop; some used the bathrooms, and others took a little walk around the area and saw some cool vines and trees. We then hopped back in the boat and meandered downriver to the ocean. Freddie and the dinghy came zooming into shore right after, and boom. Back to Ocean Star, we go. Lunch, clean up, then a lab debrief, and right into marine bio class. After class, we prepped the boat for our day passage to Les Saints tomorrow and took some wonderful boat showers. Dinner was delicious. Sausages and veggies. We ate right as it started pouring rain and a squeeze in the saloon. I am sure the salties and deckies are soaking wet at this point.