Location: Mountain Point, Virgin Gorda
Hey, friends! Guess who’s back? Get ready because it’s about to be a pretty lit day. While the song” Manic Monday” was playing, the boat woke up after a good night of sleep after Alli’s crazy fall out of her hammock last night. Everyone is ready for this beautiful day, it’s about to be under, on, and in the Caribbean sea. While breakfast was getting ready, Ayden put on his house music playlist, which made Alicia pretty enthusiastic and ready to teach the open water divers new skills. While getting their gears ready, Peyton, Parker, and Liam noticed an eagle ray under the boat, which turned out to be my grey hoodie. I was pretty happy to get back. A tank run is getting done by some of the dive masters while other crew members are soaking up the beautiful scenery in front of us. The water was the bluest I had ever seen, more blue than the sky, more blue than the water on postcards, and more beautiful than blue you can imagine in your dreams. It was truly beautiful. The tanks are getting back on the boat, and the advanced divers are about to do new skills under the water: neutral buoyancy and cool games such as getting through a hula hoop and hitting a block with our heads. We were lucky enough to have Aria join us to lead our dive with Toby (our scuba instructor).
While Paloma was absolutely crushing her buoyancy underwater, which we were all so impressed by, Parker was leading the open water divers when he saw an epic turtle. He also got called out on the VHF (the radio) since he got caught not being able to do a bowline (a kind of knot), which all made us laugh. The DM’s are still in the magnificent water of mountain point, Nathan is teaching a scenario simulating a diver that ran out of air, and two divers must share air with the secondary regulator, Liam is demonstrating how to disconnect a LPI hose, Parker is showing how to share air and remove and replace their mask, Alli is demonstrating snorkel reg replace and buoyancy, Aria is showing full mask flood, mask remove and replace, five point ascent and descent, and Alicia is demonstrating upside down underwater hovering. The other fellows of the boat are zesting on the sea while the wind is at its maximum it has ever been. Tati and Peyton are, as usual, cruising around, while Paloma and I are having difficulty with the wind hitting the zest. It was crazy, I did not think we would have made it, but guess what? We did, after capsizing a couple times (but this stays between us, okay).
The other member of the crew, Jack, was paddleboarding to the beach and skipped rocks, which he explained as the appreciation of his day! A pretty funny moment was when Tati was trying to tie the dinghy onto Nacho Dinghy and ended up hanging off the boat, holding onto the cleat, as the smaller dinghy floated backward, which left us all grinning ear to ear. Grilled cheese is getting cooked by Ruby and McKenzie, while tons of the boat’s favorite bangers are playing, such as Sailors Song, Take It Off, Unwritten, and Mr. Brightside. The Dive masters are getting back in the water. Aria was stoked to have the chance to encounter the path of a shark underwater when diving with Mackenzie and Toby. Parker got to save a fish that had been stuck under a reef, which was a long story we are saving for later. At that time, advanced students are ripping the skis on the water, and Peyton got to water ski for the first time ever. She left us all speechless when she was hitting pretty sick jumps out there. Everyone is heading back home and sharing the crazy memories we have all made today, including Peyton’s adventurous side coming out by testing out our Type I lifejackets. It’s Mexican night tonight, which has made today an even more awesome day. While the sun is going down and we are all letting our eyes enjoy this spectacular scenery that is genuinely beyond words, we get to chat about where we see ourselves in ten years. This conversation made me realize how much opportunity there is out there in the world and how heart-warming it is to learn about everyone else’s passions. It is already time for me to say goodbye until next time because I want to go back to enjoying the beautiful sunset in front of me with my new friends at the front of the boat. Today was a pretty lit day, and today is a day I will never forget, and I doubt any of us will either.
Anne-Faye B. (your fav Canadian) xxx