Location: Sommer's Beach, Tortola
Hello Parents!! We started off day 13 bright and early, waking up to “Party in the USA” blasting through the speakers. After a long night’s sleep after becoming CERTIFIED NIGHT DIVERS, Gabby and I were a little reluctant to wake up. The boat then all began their morning jobs to prepare today’s breakfast: scrambled eggs and pineapple. Even after a large portion of eggs, Robbie was still able to scarf down another two servings and three bowls of cereal. After breakfast, we set sail for our first research dive of the day, heading towards Muskmelon Bay. Once we arrived at our site, Kara and Will then briefed us on how to use different types of research equipment that could be useful to our group’s research projects. I was in a group with Gabby and Elise. As the Dolphin program worked on research dives, Kaleigh, Liam, Rudy, and Alex spent their dive crawling across the sand like cats. After resurfacing, we, unfortunately, discovered our once full tanks were depleted of all the freshwater. After getting rejected by the first marina, our whole boat was dropped off at another dive boat, Good Times. As the staff went on the mission to fill up our boat with water, Marin, Grace, Gabby, and I went knee-boarding off the super dinghy while the other Neptunes went to meet the rest of their program on Pure Joy III. Grace was able to successfully get up on the board on her first try, while Gabby and I fell onto our faces nearly a dozen times. Instead of boarding, Madison and Elise decided to tan on the boat roof, but unfortunately, Elise got burnt. After long hours on Good Times, our boat finally picked us up with full tanks, everyone got dressed up for tonight’s beach BBQ! The girls forced all the boys to take their photos and ended up with some adorable photos. Due to this barbecue having a wet entry off a dinghy, I slipped a little and completely soaked my shorts. Once arriving on the beach, all of the sail-side and dive-side congregated for burgers, hot dogs, and some football until the sunset. Although the day didnt go the way anyone had planned, it was still just as memorable.
P.S.- Hi Dad, I swear I’m not as burnt as everyone has said. Love you, and call soon 🙂