Location: Mountain Point, Virgin Gorda
Today the boat was quickly awakened to the sound of panicked divers at 5:30 am. This was part of the dive masters (Luke A, JT, Grace) rescue scenario training, where they had to find and rescue divers in the water, two were panicked, and one was unconscious. Once the scenario was over, we started breakfast which consisted of bagels and yogurt, as we got some time to fully wake up and get ready for a long day. After breakfast, the divemaster’s day was just beginning as they got to do a fun dive at the Kraken, a wreck on the outskirts of mountain point. This was an awesome dive and a great way to start the day. While that dive was happening, Spencer, as well as a few others, saw the TT Multiverse (the tender for a $275 million dollar yacht) crew drop their anchor into the water without anything attached. The dive masters were driving by on their way back to Avizia, but Mike (AQ Director) was already going to help. They ended up recovering the anchor for the boat, which was pretty cool. Avizia and crew departed for their day of sailing while the dive masters went to the dive boat for the day.
Following an interview with Anna, the following is my interpretation of how the day at sail went. Before they left, Max (our skipper) asked everyone to clean the boat while he was at a meeting, and when he got back, the boat was squeaky clean. Their sail started off with mooring practice around Mountain Point, where everyone got to rotate through all of the jobs required to get on a mooring ball. Once everyone finished, they started their long sail, where they practiced jibing and tacking, again with everyone rotating through the jobs. Maya loved the views while she spent her time reading in between job rotations and was able to finish her book! Sofia was also the honorary photographer for the day, so the wonderful photos taken today are thanks to her. Once everyone felt comfortable with those techniques, they sailed into Leverick Bay, where they were docked for two hours. While ashore, they walked around exploring the town and ordered pizzas, and Katie W ordered tacos with fries. Ellie was also craving a smoothie, so they stopped, and a few people got some. Once the boat was filled up with water, they left the dock and did more practice around Necker Island (Richard Branson’s private island), ending the sail at Mountain Point, where they dropped their anchor for the night. Katie S was on the anchor team responsible for attaching the bridle once the anchor had set into the sand.
Now back to the day of the dive masters. Once we arrived on the boat, we were initially greeted and told that five tools were dumped into the water the night prior by accident, and they wanted us to do a search and recovery dive to find them. Emma, who was the skipper for the dive boat, was in dire need of the pick for a project she was working on, and she referred to the pick as Mr. Picky, so it was crucial that we find and return it. We hopped into the water with little hope of finding such small tools since the boat had swung a lot while on anchor, but after just 6 minutes, we were able to find all five tools. We had to celebrate on the bottom, so we took our fins off and had a little celebration before returning to the surface, honoring the pick. We then did two open water dives with the new divers who just finished their confined diving. It was super rewarding to see their improvement since day one and the excitement on their faces as they completed their skills. Lunch was then served, which was soup aboard the dive boat in between rotations. We then did a tank run before having two more open water dives while using the time in between to practice skills and discuss our previous dives. After we packed up our gear, we headed back to meet Avizia after their action-packed day.
Everyone was hungry, but we had to shower before dinner. Luke C was making the most of it by wearing his goggles and playing games while showering to speed it up, as he was also eager for dinner. Paige was busy cooking AQ Thanksgiving, which is a staff favorite, and she did an amazing job. During dinner, it was silent as everyone was tired after a long day and devouring delicious food. We then spent the night with the divemasters doing a dive chat and the rest of the boat doing a sail chat. Overall it was an awesome day, and we’re looking for another great day tomorrow!