Location: Slipway, Antigua
The crew woke up today with the joy of knowing we were finally going to be able to go diving (even if it was only for training). As the smell of sausage and bacon and the peaceful sound of “Hotel Room Service” by Pitbull slowly woke everyone up, we were treated to a lovely breakfast looking out at the sunrise (Picture 1). We were then given a sequel to yesterday with “Information Overload Part 2” as the staff broke down and explained the parts of the ship and how to operate efficiently in them. After that, everyone who didn’t have their Scuba certification was tasked with putting together and taking apart their dive kit multiple times (Picture 2-3) with the end goal of actually remembering how to put it together on our own. Then we were treated to a lovely lunch (Picture 4) and a swift final prep as the non-scuba certified group were escorted by dinghy out of the harbor and to a semi shallow beach where we would be able to see if we could effectively translate hand signals and preform basic dive skills whilst underwater. Once that was wrapped up, we headed back to Ocean Star and took a shower as our Pad Thai dinner was finishing up. Finally, we ate dinner (picture 5), and the non-scuba-certified group was treated with another few hours of dive training videos down in the salon.
Overall it was a pretty great day, and I look forward to many more on this trip.
Picture 1 – Fancy Boat
Picture 2 – Bandito teaching diving
Picture 3 – Dive Kit Set Up
Picture 4 – Smiley Faces
Picture 5 – The herd gathers before feeding time