Foxtrot 2 & Sierra 2 Day 6: Contributing To The Data On Corals In The BVI
written by Foxtrot/Sierra mate, Emily Graf
July 21, 2017
Today, we woke up at beautiful Norman Island. We cooked a yummy warm breakfast to start our day right. Some of us went off diving to finish off our Open Water courses — they were very excited! Some of us also got to try diving for the first time doing our Discover Scuba diving course right off the beach at the Pirate’s Bight on Norman Island.
Those of us who did not go diving headed off to the Indians, a popular snorkel site. This site was so cool because of the large pinnacle rocks that stick up straight out of the water. We had a marine biology lesson on corals and headed out to snorkel. We also got to gather data on corals which included documenting which ones showed signs of bleaching. We were really excited to contribute to the data on corals in the BVI. After snorkeling and diving, we dropped our mooring ball to head to Nanny Cay.
Arriving at Nanny Cay’s marina, our crews tackled one of the most difficult aspects of sailing — docking their beloved vessel. The skippers of the day successfully planned and executed their dockings of our large catamarans and we’re really proud of ourselves for how well we did! After the triumph, we were pretty hungry so we cooked up the rest of the food we had on the boat to make a huge meal as our re-provisioning would arrive later that afternoon. After, we cleaned up our boats from top to bottom. Once we passed the cleaning inspections, we got some time to call home to check in with friends, family and loved ones. After phone time, our free time was spent exploring the market store, surf shop, dive shop, pool, or beach.
After our free time, we took nice long warm showers on land then headed back to our boats to cook up some dinner. After dinner, we socialized with the other Sail Caribbean program boats that were staying the night alongside of us. We were sad because the Delta program was splitting off from the group the next day to sail Down Island. Since we were not going to see them for a little while, we all hung out and had a sing along with a guitar and lots of beautiful voices. After the music began to fade and eyes became tired, we all headed to bed to rest up for the next day’s exploits.
