Early Alpha Day 5: Busy Day at the Bight
Brought to you by the crew of Meursault
June 14, 2016
This morning got off to another great start! As soon as breakfast was finished, our open water divers hopped on the dive boat for the morning with their masks, fins, snorkels, sunscreen, water bottles and a positive attitude! Tripp, Patrick, Griffin, Shay, Macy, Kat, Josh, Tucker, and Issy all successfully completed their first two open water dives to 40ft today! Now all that stands between them and becoming certified open water divers is open water dives three and four, which are scheduled to take place tomorrow morning.
Once the divers had gone, the rest of us took one of the boats over to the Caves. For the drive over, we had our fearless leader Sofi on the helm. The Caves is a popular snorkeling site just outside of the Bight that even had a few scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean filmed there! While we were at the Caves we got a Fish I.D. lesson from Montlouis’ mate, Grace and then we jumped in the water with dive slates to record the different fish species that we saw and how numerous they were. We submit this data to Project Reef, which is an international community service project that tracks fish populations around the world!
When we had finished our snorkel, Anna drove us back to the Bight and we picked up a mooring ball for the night. The team prepped a delightful lunch of chicken pesto melts and then headed to shore with a picnic to meet our hungry divers on the docks. Following lunch, we went on a hike up to the helicopter pad at the top of the island and played some games like Ships and Sailors, and the Winds Are Blowing! Once we had descended from our mighty perch atop the island we spent the afternoon swimming and playing on standup paddleboards on the beach before heading back to boats for dinner prep.
For a bit of post-dinner fun, the team headed to shore for dessert and drinks at the restaurant. Once folks had finished with their desserts, we took to the courts for some late night volleyball! By the end of the evening, we were all beyond exhausted but content after a busy and fulfilling day at the Bight. We are all looking forward to a good night’s rest and a day on docks at Nanny Cay tomorrow!
