Location: Rosseau, Dominica
We had a busy, busy day today! What did we do, you may ask? Let me tell you.
First, we had a really early morning wake-up call (6 am [and yes, to my family, I was up on time to get everybody else up for the day]). We had a breakfast of yogurt and granola with some fresh fruit. After breakfast and clean up, we dinghied over to the entrance of a river that was in the bay we were anchored in. There we went on the Indian River Tour, which was a tour of an estuary (anybody reading this who doesn’t know what that is can look it up, lolz, they’re pretty cool). As part of our tour, we took some science instruments from Vela and took a variety of different tests in the estuary. It was really, really cool. The guides told us all about the local plants and animals that inhabited the area. Carla was not a fan of the crabs (although I did hear at dinner that she has a goal to hold one by the end of the trip). At the turnaround point of the tour, there was a little bar/ sitting area where we all convened. Upon arrival, we discovered that there were puppies, kittens, and lizards floating around. Everyone was super in love with all of them. Lake rescued a kitten from the rafters, Ted had a puppy that was snooooozing in his arms, and Lake also found out the lizard we found really really liked her. On our way back to the entrance of the river, we took more tests to compare and contrast our findings from the way in because we’re super studious like that. Near the end, there was a tributary that we went up, and guess what?! Pirates of the Caribbean, Callipso’s hut, filmed there, still standing, saw it. ‘Nuff said. We finished the tour and then went back to Vela.
After that, we prepared for passage. I helped raise the anchor with the other students. I was in the chain locker feathering the anchor chain. I kinda smelled like fish afterward; it’s ok; it was cool! Our passage was a small one, so we didn’t raise the sails. We were just going to a different part of Dominica where we have more things planned tomorrow 🙂 While on passage, Skylar, Magdalena, and Smash made lunch for everyone. It was a Mediterranean-type sandwich with some kale chips, carrots, and hummus. And wait, what was that, man over-board!!!!!! Not really, but we did run a drill for what to do if that happens today. We all split into our watch teams and practiced what to do if that ever happened. It went pretty good! It was really helpful to run it to better understand how it all worked (I pictured the orange floaties that were our sacrificial man overboard).
After the drill, we cleaned up from lunch, and a group of us went to a Nav Master Class. The rest of us had a little bit of free time. I stayed up on deck, hung out with some of the staff + Daphne, and “drove” Vela for the afternoon until we got close enough to our final destination. Then Tom took over. It was really cool and a little different than I thought it would be. After (finally) finding a place to anchor for the night, the class groups switched. I and others went to the other Nav Master Class, and the rest of us went to Dinghy School, where we learned how to drive the dinghies. I really enjoyed the Nav Master class, but I also really really enjoy finding things on charts. After Nav class, we had some scuba diving knowledge reviews to do, which got very sidetracked by Carla arguing with Charlie, Lake, Miles, and Morana over Iron lungs, but we got it done eventually. After such a packed day, we all got to take an ocean shower and then eat dinner, which was taco bowls, and they were so so yum!
The squeeze question of the night was, “If you could be a villain from a Disney movie which would you be?” There were lots of good answers! After our tour today, we’re getting ready to watch Pirates of the Caribbean (I feel like this should be an obvious why… lolz)
If my family is reading this, sup
I’m having an awesome time! I hope that my cats are not driving you too insane, and I really, really hope you haven’t killed my plants yet 🙂 Love you all