Early Foxtrot & Early Sierra 2018 Adventures Day 3 – Reflecting On The Day's Action-Packed Day
written by captain, Luka Walshe
June 10, 2018
Today, the Foxtrot and Sierra fleet woke up at Copper Island. Following a rejuvenating breakfast, our Open Water students started their activities for the day by completing their confined skills dives. In the shallow waters of Manchioneel Bay, the environment is calm and comfortable for new divers to practice and perfect dive maneuvers. Our Discover Scuba Diving and Advanced Open Water students motored on the vessel Grenade over to Salt Island where they hiked to the salt lagoon and looked out from the peak of the hike to a 360 degree BVI vista.
Following our descent of the mountain and on our voyage back to Cooper, the crew had a minor issue arise with the vessel’s anchor and the students had the opportunity to learn about fuses and breakers as we fixed the windless. The student sailors motored back to Cooper Island for lunch and to meet up with the Open Water divers in their groups.
Once we finished eating, everyone went back to shore on Cooper Island. The Open Water students completed another confined dive while the Advanced Open Water class practiced navigation skills off the beach. Also our Discover Scuba students explored the beach and did tons of rounds of watersports, in particular on our infamous tube, Poparazzi!
After all the students had returned to their boats, showered, and ate dinner, the Advanced Open Water students left for a night dive! The class dove on the wreck of the RMS Rhone and successfully completed the night dive requirement for their PADI Advanced Open Water certifications. Everyone was exhausted by the time we were all on our boats for the night.
Before bed, each boat had a boat meeting where we reflected on the day and came up with our Full Value Contracts, where the student crews discussed and decided on what “things” would be kept on and off the boat. These things range from the intangible, such as respect for one another will be on the boat, to the tangible, such as sand will be off the boat. Everyone went to bed very tired from a long day of activities, but very excited for our first day of turtle tagging tomorrow!
