Location: Mountain Point, Virgin Gorda
Similar to day 4, this blog also begins the night before. Maya and Aiden reprised their roles as chefs to concoct brookies for the boat; however, this time, we were able to achieve a fully cooked-through brownie. After a late night, we began moving bright and early to Great Dog for a dive at the Chimneys. While underway, we enjoyed a breakfast of cereal and fruit while Casey braided hair in preparation for a long two-dive day. The rescues had a fun dive while the neptunes completed their second underwater naturalist dive. While underwater, Lorelai saw a spotted trunk fish, while Casey spotted a sea urchin during the swim through. While completing our dive, we battled rough currents and large chop, so much so that Cameron lost his GoPro(to be quickly retrieved thanks to Matt).
In contrast, Maya, Ava, and Kate enjoyed the beautiful weather and soaked up the sun on the surface. After surfacing, we all began our long sail back to Mountain Point. Where our chefs, Kate and Ash, began cooking our lunch of ramen. After lunch, Stella spotted a turtle and a large school of fish eating under our boat. When we arrived, we prepped our kits for a rescue navigation dive and a Neptune boat dive. Before we could splash, Aiden had to defog his mask and did so with his toothpaste and toothbrush after being instructed to use toothpaste alone. Audrey, Cameron, and Ellery completed their back roll entry with unparalleled elegance and met the rest of the group on the second navigation dive. While on the dive, I am proud to report that no one got lost while completing the navigation pattern. After completing the skills, Aiden, Lorelei, Nat, and Ellery decided to remove their fins and walk around the sea floor barefoot. Following the dive, we all surfaced for some good old book work and water sports. Jackson was able to complete an incredible run on the solemn ski and impressed the entire boat yet again. Ash also wowed the crowd with an incredible performance on the waterskis. Finally, Mat was able to grill up the most delectable veggie burgers for dinner, and we closed it with a squeeze. As I write this, we are preparing to watch a long Emergency First Response video on CPR and other first aid skills.