Location: English Harbor, Antigua
Hello everyone! Welcome to day 6 of the Ocean Star.
We started the day with some delicious chocolate chip pancakes cooked by our very first student head chef, Jackson. After everyone fully woke up, advanced open water divers (AOW) set up their kits and went out to ID some fish. Owen was excited to see a peacock flounder for the first time, and Rhianna identified it as a goby. Meanwhile, all of the open water divers stayed back to finish our final tests. The RDP tables were challenging, but after a short review, we all ended up acing our quizzes and final. So, as of today, Chloe, Claire, Kathrine, Mani, Robert, and I (Nadia) are officially certified open water divers! Woohoo!
Once the AOW divers returned, Meg gave all of us a scientific writing chat, where we were given guidelines and tips for our scientific papers due in a few weeks. After our lesson, we enjoyed some barbecue chicken sandwiches before cleaning and heading to shore. Chloe, Kathrine, Jackson, Max, Owen, Rhianna, Robert, and Will ventured to Nelsons Dockyard, where they found drinks, snacks, wifi, merch, dive gear, and (best of all) real showers! The other group (Annika, Claire, Mani, Zoe, and I) traveled to the local grocery store with Allie. Union Island was significantly affected by Hurricane Beryl, so our crew is collecting supplies to donate once we reach the island. Once we got shopping carts, we got right to work collecting baby formula, canned food (corn, pineapples, beans, etc.), diapers, milk powder, rice, sanitary products, and so on. Once we finished, Allie gave us 15 minutes for personal shopping, and we hunted for coconut water, coffee, local snacks, and soda.
When we got back to the boat, we took our ocean showers (one of my favorite times of the day) and had build-your-own tacos for dinner. We then had a double squeeze since Annika wasnt able to ask her question yesterday. Annika wanted to know how long we thought we would survive a zombie apocalypse, and we got a hilarious broad range of answers. Some admitted they wouldnt make it past an hour, while others were confident they could survive for several years. Since our group split up so much today, I wanted to know which word each person would use to describe their day (results are at the bottom). We ended the day with a lesson in Seamanship given by Nick. He has successfully gotten the song The Points of Sail stuck in all of our heads. Not only is the song incredibly catchy but it helps us memorize the names of the different angles our boat sails in regards to the wind.
Anyway, everyone is looking forward to tomorrow since were leaving Antigua and setting sail to the Island Union. Now that we have our phones back stay posted for lots of pictures and updates!
All the best,
Nadia
Question: If you could use one word to describe your day today, what would it be?
Answers:
Annika- Solid
Mani- Adventurous
Rhianna- Savage
Chloe- Chill
Claire- Slay
Will- Swag
Jackson- Clean
Zoe- Delightful
Robert- Splendid
Ben- Productive
Meg- Sunny
Max- Terrific
Allie- Mobile
Kathrine- Pina colada
Nick- Wack
Nadia- Successful
Ps. Hello Mutti, Dad, family and friends! Ich liebe dich so sehr!