Location: Mt. Point
I started the morning on the last anchor watch looking at the sunrise, and tonight, I ended with everyone around a fabulously prepared Mexican Night watching one of the most beautiful sunsets in the BVI. We started our day in Savannah Bay, anchored on the Leeward side of Virgin Gorda. After breakfast, we launched the dinghies and headed to the beach for our first lab. We walked down the beach, picking up things that used to be part of something living (and the occasional piece of trash), and Faloon led a talk about the different organisms we found washed up on the beach… Then, we all walked across the Island via a salt pond. Jack stopped us in the salt pond to talk about their importance as a filter for runoff from the islands. When we got across the Island, we saw a totally different landscape; waves crashed up on the rocky shore, and the wind blew much stronger. We stopped to talk about the windward and leeward sides of the islands and then headed back to the beach and then to Ocean Star. While the chefs cooked lunch, the rest of us got Ocean Star ready to move to Mt. Point. After lunch, we discussed the emergency procedures onboard, so Kevin surprised us with a fire drill while we motored to Mt. Point. When we arrived, everyone got to go on a dive. The open water students got to go on their first open water dive (yay!), and the rest of us went on a dive just for fun. We finished diving right around shower time, and then we hung out until dinner. Cleanup from dinner is just finishing up, and tonight, we have our first OCE lecture with Laurie! Everyone seems to be gelling more and more and looking forward to another exciting day tomorrow, followed by another gorgeous BVI sunset.