Location: Mayreau, St Vincent and the Grenadines
I woke up at 6:45, especially to choose which songs I would be playing to wake everyone up to. Fortunately, yesterday I had a request from a certain foc’s’le resident for some more Australian hip hop. And so, I obliged by playing the most mellow Aussie hip hop song I could think of, “The Waitress Song” by Seth Sentry. As I wandered around deck at 7 am to move between the Foc’s’le and the Saloon, I was pleasantly surprised by how many people were already up and about. Savannah and her chef team were busy in the galley making a wonderful sausage hash-brown casserole, and Mia was on deck doing her laundry. Once everyone was up and about, we had breakfast on deck, where the quality of the food definitely represented the efforts of the chefs. It was amazing!
Once breakfast was done and everything was cleaned and put away, the group had their first class of the day, Marine Biology, where they started to learn about the different types of coral and how coral forms. This class was followed by Seamanship, where the group continued to build upon their knowledge on navigation using charts, specifically a technique called the three-bearing fix. Meanwhile, Savannah and her chefs were busy creating a spectacular rendition of the American classic, Mac ‘n’ Cheese.
After lunch, it was time for the group to split into their watch teams in order to compete in the Mayreau Challenge Course! Watch teams 1, 2, and 3, staggered by 15 minute start times, had to figure out ways to get to shore without a boat while carrying everything they would need, solve clues, complete group tasks, problem solve, and answer science questions in order to advance to the next leg. This course took them all over the island of Mayreau, to beaches, salt ponds, up the big hills and then down them, then up them again (and for some watch teams up and down them a few more times).
There was a small snafu with the charts required for the course, where they accidentally got wet, meaning all watch teams had significant difficulty navigating the island. One watch team, in particular, had trouble and went rogue for a few hours before being spotted at the church. From the sounds of it, though, each team’s day was filled with adventure, bonding, fun, and baby goats.
We finished the day off with a curry made by the chef team and the squeeze question of, what would you name your own boat and its dinghy?