Location: Portsmouth, Dominica
Today, we continued our exploration of Dominica. This morning, we had pancakes for breakfast – as it is Shrove Tuesday – or Pancake Day, as we call it in England. Following this, some crew members ventured ashore to check out the town of Portsmouth. It is a carnival here at the moment, and there is a lot of music coming from ashore. We all met our guides at 11:00 am at the mouth of the Indian River. From here, they rowed us up the estuary as we took salinity and temperature measurements at different depths. We enjoyed a Creole lunch up the river at Cobras Cafe and then headed back down the river to join in the carnival and watch the processions. Back on the boat at 15:30, we debriefed on the lab and started to plot out the salinity and temperature contours of the river. These will be given to Cobra on Ocean Star’s next visit. Dinner was interesting – seafood and rice, followed by a novel item we had picked up ashore after being told it was a local delicacy – pig snout – Reese cooked it up well, and surprisingly, most people enjoyed it! Now, everyone is preparing for an oceanography quiz, and six students will be presenting the findings of their literature reviewanother adventurous day on my favorite island.