Written by Sean C., Mate on Unsinkable II
Early morning showers, mostly sunny throughout the day. There were light to medium winds at about 10-15 knots during our sail. As the day went on, it became more sunny, and the clouds opened up beautifully for the night stars at the end of the day. Today was packed full with diving and other water-sporting activities. We started the day early at 6:45. Our divers woke and quickly gobbled up some breakfast yogurts and cereal. By 8am, all the divers were motored over to Cooper where their diving would begin. Today our Discover Scuba Divers worked on their newly acquired diving skills at the Rhone, a historic wreck off the coast of Salt Island. They saw two sharks and two turtles and got to about 25 feet in depth!
Mika P – “The turtles and sharks were huge! I got super close to them.”
All of our other more experienced divers continued further down in the Rhone and got to a max depth of around 70 ft. They saw 4 reef sharks, some sea turtles, sting rays and a morae eel! “There was a giant lobster and I really wanted it…” said Cort K, safe to say he ate well that night (just kidding).
As for our non-divers, they began their pre-departure checks; a routine part of the day by this part in the program. Just after 9 we had a smooth up-anchoring and were under way, leaving Salt Island, and headed toward Great Harbour on Peter Island. Today’s main event of the sail was a competition! All the boats on fleet raced to see who could get their sails up the quickest. The competition was stiff, but eventually the boat “She’s the Captain” came out on top. Around noon all the boats were back on a mooring ball at Great harbour, one of the places with the clearest water in the BVI! At the same time the discover scuba diving students returned.
To fuel up for the exciting activities ahead, the kids made some delicious greek salad partnered with grilled cheeses, a simple but delicious meal. At 1 pm we started our activities: Tubing, wakeboarding, Colgating (sailing on a smaller boat with a smaller group), and snorkelling/turtling. This was the highlight of the day for many. Our tubers had an amazing time. “It was scary, but so fun! Everyone ended up flipping over” said Hyrum, our skipper of the day. Her brother, Noey, “there was so much salt in my eyes that I couldn’t see a thing … but it was awesome!
For one of the activities we went on a snorkel around the coral reef, but it quickly turned into a turtle tagging adventure. Our amazing marine bio staff were able to capture two green turtles, one small and one larger juvineline one of them tagged for future research! It was an amazing experience to see such a cool creature up close.
The reef at Great Harbour is amazing because there is a large drop-off at the edge of the reef. Therefore there are a lot of cool fish and many changes in depth to keep the snorkel interesting. By 4:30 all the rest of our divers returned and we began showers as they recounted their stories from their adventures. At the same time, our students getting their ASA sailing certifications were shipped over to “She’s the Captain” for a lesson by our amazing captain Ritchie, an expert review for our upcoming testing. By 5 everybody was back for showers, and dinner was on its way. Today we had burritos, and the meat was seasoned perfectly! The rest of the night seemed to be a pretty relaxing night with just boat clean…
But wait! Over the radio we got our instructions for a surprise bakeoff!
All the boats on fleet sprung into action and had just over an hour to make the best dessert from their allocated cake mix. The judges based their rating on: taste, presentation and story (behind the cake). Making the cake was a chaotic process, involving a lot of singing and dancing. “Unsinkable II” made a brownie and chocolate cake with an oreo cream cheese frosting topped with more oreos and pretzels; it was superb, easily one of the best desserts I had eaten in a long time.
Each boat took a turn going to the staff boat to get judged, and we await to hear the who the winners are until the end of program.
While we ended our day playing possee before bed, we reflected on the exciting new activities we all participated in and the great teamwork all around, another amazing day on Mega fleet.
