Location: Statia
Today we woke up bright and early (6:30 early for me, but so very worth it) to get ahead of the day before our two dives in Statia! After fueling with Chef Aidans breakfast (cereal), we set out to meet an amazing dive crew that would take us to a shipwreck about 75 feet down around a half mile from where Ocean Star is anchored. After the briefing, we hopped into the ocean in high spirits and fought vigorously against a somewhat strong current to descend to the wreckage. Immediately, we saw lion fish and amazing, almost neon purple corals peeking out from the ship. After this dive, I can confidently say with no reservations that sea turtles are unironically my favorite animal ever. Our turtle count for the day was three: one ray, one lion fish, and a flamingo tongue? Not quite sure on the last one, but after the wreck, we got to go on a second dive to a very populated spot that had pink eel-like creatures that erupted from the sand. After surfacing, we headed to the local dive shop/cafe/bar/gift shop that sat right on the shore of a beach- quite the perfect spot if you ask me. We ate lunch from the boat (thank you, Aidan) and copious amounts of carrot cake, and then traversed up the hill to go to town. This town made the top three on this trip for me because it seemed the entire population was napping while we walked amongst the colorful buildings, flowers, and the spectacular view. We wound up in the public library with popsicles before descending back down to the dive shop to swim some more and hang out. Most featured in my camera roll today is Avi, as he kept flipping off of this decrepit and slightly rusty dock we found near the shop. After our day in town, we arrived back at Ocean Star to continue our nautical studies with Gabe, prepping for our navigation test that is coming up all too quickly Then, quite an amazing dinner cooked by Aidan, and after clean up, we prepared for our trial.
The short story of this long-awaited trial is that there was a small request made by one of the students, and in order for it to be granted, we had to appease the Council of Elders through a series of unfortunate but very hilarious events and performances. Consisting but not limited to Doms rendition of Riptide by Vance Joy (with a very out-of-tune ukulele he found in town today), Mollys rundown of Love Island, Adaiahs drawing skills, Wills singing skills, and a group performance of Its Raining Men. The Elders were not fully appeased, and Millie and I were sentenced to a chickpea eating race, Dom ended up covered in peanut butter, Oli had to bob for a mango, Charlie had to eat cheerios with a chopstick, Avi had to eat a bell pepper (it ended up overboard), Madeline had to fish for cutlery, Adaiah was unpunished because her drawing was so good, Will had to wear oven mitts for the rest of the night, Molly had to dance with Gabe and not laugh, Marie has a surprise sleeping arrangement tonight, and finally Cami had to cheer us on through every endeavor. We ended the night with a very thorough ocean shower and are very ready for what tomorrow holds!!