Sierra 3, Charlie 3, Foxtrot 3 and Alpha 4, Day 3: Big day at the Bight!
Written by Kyra Benforte
Edited by Allie Faulkner
Day 3
As the sun rose, we woke up and looked out over the beautiful Caribbean Sea. This morning we awoke at The Bight on Norman Island. The crew members in charge of breakfast pulled out an abundance of breakfast items for us to have a wonderful buffet. We then tidied the boat and did our dishes as the divers got ready.
The open water divers, advanced open water divers, discover scuba divers and fun divers all headed to shore to begin diving for the day. Advanced open water students and open water students worked on skills, while the discovery scuba divers went diving for the very first time! The fun divers loved getting to explore a new dive site.
While the divers were diving, the rest of us went to shore a bit later and got to hike to the top of Norman Island. At the top of the island there’s a helicopter pad that we played fun games on. We played “Oh Captain My Captain” which is similar to Simon Says, “Where the wind blows” and a silly game called “WHA”. They are all fun interactive games that help us learn about one another and build friendships!
After walking back down the mountain, we all gathered ashore where some of us had the opportunity to sail on our Colgate 26, Opal. While on shore, the rest of us played frisbee, splashed around on the beach and just enjoyed each other’s company.
After shore time, the divers and non-divers came back together on their boats for a delicious lunch of broccoli macaroni and cheese. After lunch the open water divers headed back to shore to continue diving and learning their skills. The rest of us, who were not diving, dropped the ball and motored our boats to the Indians, a snorkel sight close to The Bight. Every boat has a marine science staff member on board, so our captain or mate taught a very knowledgeable lesson on dangerous critters and coral. Our staff members also went over snorkel safety, the buddy system we have at Sail Caribbean and how to have a safe and fun snorkel. We all learned so much during these lessons and had a blast getting to snorkel around the colorful Indians and see all the coral we learned about.
After we had seen some dazzling fish and vibrant coral, we hoped back on our boats and started to head back to The Bight for the night. We were back on the ball in time to pick up our divers, who were done learning their skills for the day. We then prepared a scrumptious dinner of barbeque chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. Our jam-packed day made us all super hungry so our well prepared meal was scarfed down. Our fun divers then had to get ready for the night dive. They were all so excited to see what marine life comes out at night!
Once the divers returned, we all had some warm hot chocolate during boat meeting. It was such a special treat to warm us up in the cool breeze of the night. In boat meeting we made our Full Value Contract. This is a contract that says what we want on and off the boat during the program. It’s not about physical things we want on and off the boat, it is more like rules that we want to hold each other and ourselves accountable to. We then all signed our new set of rules, agreeing that we will follow them. After everyone had signed, we all began to find our sleeping spots. We all dozed off looking up at the beautiful starts and thinking about our busy day tomorrow.
