Location: Admiralty Bay, Bequia
Today started with the sunrise; O-Star’s crew began to muster on deck bright and early for a quick breakfast cooked by chefs Josh and Tommy before hopping into dinghies bound for shore, all before 7 AM! The early wake-up was due to the nature of our day’s onshore activity, visiting a turtle sanctuary. We were bounced up and down, driving across the island, sitting in the bed of our truck turned taxi before getting out to be greeted by the friendly and enthusiastic “Brother King” who has been running this turtle sanctuary for 21 years! We arrived just in time for the turtles’ breakfast and helped toss in handfuls of fish to feed the dozens of endangered Hawksbill turtles ranging from babies smaller than a notepad to near 300-pound adults! After feeding, it was bath time. The huge seawater pools were drained, and the whole crew grabbed scrub brushes and jumped in to help clean and play with the turtles, only being slightly distracted by the dozens of roaming puppies.
Leaving the sanctuary with delicious fresh fruit popsicles courtesy of Mrs. King, we returned to Ocean Star for a few hours of class and lunch. Following our into to navigation MTE class, we all jumped up on deck to prepare our dive gear to complete another training dive marking the halfway to point to our Advanced Open Water certifications, which ended up being quite eventful after my dive group spotted a number of moray eels lurking around the reef. Being quite exhausted after the busy day, we all have been greatly enjoying our downtime until dinner by reading, sleeping, or getting some homework done. Speaking of which, from the loud shouts on deck, it seems dinner is being served, so long from OceanStar!
Love you, mom & dad!
-Peter