Alpha 1 2015 – Day 9

written by mate, Alex Armson, Brought to you by the crew of Xeres

Today, Oliver was our captain, Betsy was the navigator and Matt was the Ship’s mate. We sailed from Marina Cay to Bitter End Yacht Club via the Dogs. It was a pretty windy day, with gusts up to around 20 knots, so we reefed our mainsail and our jib sails. Despite this, we still sailed pretty quickly and we were keeled over hard the whole time.

We started the day with a coral lesson from Sesno and learned about how they sustain themselves and help to support the rest of the ocean’s ecosystems. Afterwards, we went snorkeling at a place called The Maze which had incredible coral and there were underwater caves you could swim through. We then motored over to The Dogs and the divers Hazel, Katie, Drew and Dean went diving. When they were diving, they all saw an eight foot hammerhead shark! It was incredible! Meanwhile, the non-divers from the other Alpha boat, Venture, joined Xeres to sail from The Dogs to the Bitter End Yacht Club. It was a great sail and Oliver and Matt did a great job of sailing up wind and making sure that we didn’t keep getting stuck head to wind. Kenzie, Betsy and Aiden also did a great job of lowering the main sail when we needed to.

When we arrived at the Bitter End Yacht Club, the non-divers had some spare time and went tubing and wake boarding. Matt even managed to stand up at the end!

Today, the crew did a great job of cleaning the boat, but we need to work on communication. Our miracle moment was seeing the hammer head shark while diving.

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