Alpha 4 & Charlie 3 Day 9: Diving & Snorkeling The Kodiak Queen At Mountain Point
written by Alpha/Charlie mate, Mike Harrington
August 15, 2017
Today was a really special day today in Sail Caribbean – Race Day! Our hearts were literally pounding the entire start sequence as all the boats listened to the countdown on the radio, trying to be in the best position on the start line. Our skippers of the day showed us all how to sit up on the rail with our feet out over the side like professional racers! The two cats and two monohulls (of the Alpha, Charlie, Foxtrot and Sierra programs) raced side by side all the way from Little Harbour on Peter Island, up to Mountain Point on Virgin Gorda (a whopping 20miles in total). We loved feeling the boat heel over so much — the thrill of the day was palpable.
Once we got to Mountain Point, we split up into two groups; divers and snorkelers and we all went to swim around on a brand new wreck called the Kodiak Queen. This site is incredible. Our counselors taught us that the sunken vessel was one of the only surviving ships to survive Pearl Harbour and has now been implemented as an art reef installation at Mountain Point. The snorkelers practiced duck diving down as deep as they could go, even swimming down and under the Kraken’s tentacles. It was ridiculously cool.
Later in the day, we enjoyed many rounds of watersporting. We all went back to our boats and had chicken alfredo with rice for dinner and then it was back in the water for a night adaptations lesson. We had a neat lesson about what is known as bioluminescence where invisible plankton in the water can light up at night when you shake them about. The students couldn’t believe their eyes when they first saw it. It looked as if 100,000 tiny balls of light were swimming around in the water with me. Truly unforgettable.
We had hot chocolate for our evening boat meeting and played a game of Pirate Mafia where the village has to work out who the Pirates are before everyone gets marooned. After the laughter subsided and our eyes grew weary, we powered down from another wonderful day.
