Location: Saint Helena
After our second night getting used to our new anchor watch schedule, we had an early wake-up with some delicious breakfast burritos cooked by our head chef, Vittoria, and headed straight out to see some whale sharks with our local guide, Keith! We unfortunately didnt see any whale sharks after boating around for a couple of hours, but we encountered a large pod of dolphins and got some amazing underwater footage. Camilla also hauled in a HUGE tuna off the back of the boat. She celebrated her big accomplishment by taking a bite of the tuna heart (yuck!).
After our amazing morning of dolphins and tuna, we had a quick lunch on Vela and headed straight out to the marine biology center of St. Helena. There, we learned about the local marine species of St. Helena and their conservation efforts, and also had the opportunity to get on some lab coats and dissect bait fish! These fish included mackerel and scad, and we examined their internal reproductive organs and tried to extract their otoliths (the small stone-like structures in the fishs ear canal in charge of balance, also used for aging the fish). We had a few hours of shore time to continue exploring St. Helena after our time at the marine biology center. We, of course, all raced to get some of that amazing St. Helena coffee and up to Annes cafe to make some much-needed calls to friends and family.
Back on Vela, we had a few hours to swim and do laundry before dinner. As we gathered around the cockpit for a scrumptious dinner of pumpkin risotto and snickerdoodle cookies, Emma spotted a huge fin in the water. We raced to the port side to see a beautiful St. Helena whale shark swimming past Vela. She swam near us for about 45 minutes while we ate and watched the sunset, officially making this day one of the best yet. Nothing can top all the amazing animals we saw today, and as we ended dinner with our daily appreciation of the day, we all agreed that today was truly magical.
To Kelly (Keelime) – I miss you so so much and have so much to tell you when I get home! Cant wait to tell you everything over a milkshake and big plate of Old Bay fries at Silver Diner. I blob you! – Erin (Erine)