Delta 1 Day 3: Green Turtle Sightings and a Nurse Shark Encounter!

June 27, 2016

Morning dawned with boats swinging gently in the building breeze. By 8.30am, we had our intrepid divers aboard either ‘Discovery’ or ‘Endeavour’, the two dive boats owned by Sail Caribbean Divers. Students working towards their Open Water Certifications stayed in the bay  while our “Discover SCUBA Diving” students headed out to Ginger island for a dive. Between the divers, there were numerous Green turtle sightings, and also a grey nurse shark encounter! Don’t worry, Grey nurse sharks are a wonderfully docile creature.

Non-diving students spent time on Opal Bella, our 26 foot training keelboat, sailing, and others went swimming from the shore and ate ice-cream! By midday, we were all back on our boats for lunch. Students cooked up delicious Chicken caesar pita wraps, then we got ready to sail! This was our first ‘true’ sail, with a focus on raising our huge mainsail, unfurling the jib sail, and heading down-wind. Crews learned parts of the sail, and played water drinking games – catching up hydration! It was quite a sight to see 10 sail Caribbean sailing vessels making their way down the Sir Francis Drake Passage, proudly flying the signature Sail caribbean burgee flag.

By 5p.m., we were all on our moorings at Pirate’s Bight on Norman island, and swimming, snorkeling and showering off the stern of the boats. ‘Regular’ showering at Sail Caribbean happens every time were are on docks, (about every 5 – 7 days)…the rest of the time, girls and guys take turns swimming, scrubbing and shampooing on the stern swim platform…finishing off with a 10 second fresh water rinse. Boat showers always include a student-inspired soundtrack as well!

In the evening, we joined the Alpha program fleet boats ashore for a ‘soda social’, and relaxing catch up. At this stage, everyone is over jet-lag, hydrated, happy and most importantly, having fun!