Location: Tobago Cays
Ocean Star woke this morning to soft music and warm oatmeal just as the sun began to clear over the mountains of Carriacou. Her crew quickly hauled anchors onboard and headed north towards Union Island to clear into St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We will be spending ten days in the territory, visiting 5 of her lovely islands. While hovering outside of Union Island, students learned more about sponges and cnidarians (jellyfish, anemones, and corals) in Marine Biology. After class, we set off for a day full of sail training. The conditions were perfect, and the rains that had been hanging around the day before were nowhere in sight. Ocean Star’s crew practiced tacking the jib and reviewed our roles for emergency drills. After a few hours of sailing around the island of Mayreau, a future destination of ours, we dropped sails and began to navigate the reef surrounding the beautiful Tobago Cays. As we motored between the island and reef patches, the abundance of sea turtles the Tobago Cays are known for began to show themselves, creating excitement for tomorrow’s turtle snorkel. Soon Ocean Star was safely anchored in the beautiful “20-ft of sand” turquoise waters, and showers commenced in the shadow of Petit Talbec (better known as the island where Jack Sparrow was marooned on in the Pirates of the Caribbean). The sun soon set again on another amazing day on Ocean Star as students headed down below for an evening of the Leadership class.