Location: Muskmelon Bay, Guana Island
Finally – the moment we’ve all been waiting for….. a sleep-in day! Most days on Merecat begin at 6:30/7 A.M. sharp to account for fitting in, cooking and eating breakfast, cleanup, gear set up, and preparations for rotation days, all before the first rotation begins at 8. As DM candidates, we are always helping out with rotation days, in which many of the other boats come over to Merecat to dive! This means we’re busy gearing up and hopping in the water with instructors and students up to four times a day. Rotation days are exhilarating but also quite hectic. There is no stopping, so today’s 8 AM wake-up was much appreciated for our tired crew; we just completed three rotation days in a row. Two more are rapidly approaching.
The full day began with Caroline and Aidan waking up to make pancakes, everyone’s favorite AQ breakfast, next to breakfast burritos. My dad makes me breakfast burritos at home, so I was glad to be chef yesterday and make them as well. After breakfast, we motored from our mooring field by Beef Island to Trellis Bay, where we stopped for lunch on shore.
On shore, we enjoyed finding a very friendly cat hanging around the picnic tables, as well as discovering a pottery and T-shirt shop by our lunch location. After three hours of slow-paced shore time, we returned to the boat and got ready to head to Musk Mellon Bay.
Now here comes exciting news for the sailors out there – we got to raise both sails on our way! Aidan got one of his first tastes of sailing (even though catamaran sailing isn’t real sailing), and Amanda put some of her advanced sailing skills to use. Personally, I enjoyed a great nap underway.
We arrived in Musk Mellon in the late afternoon and immediately undertook our “favorite” DM duty: tank runs. Amanda, Bella, Aidan, and I hopped into the dingy and dropped off empty tanks to Under Pressure – the boat with a compressor that can fill tanks. We then headed back to Merecat with new full tanks in preparation for tonight’s fun night dive and for the advanced students’ night dive. Though I must say my line throwing skills need improving, in my defense, everyone was making me laugh.
We ended the day with chili, rice, and garlic bagels (aka garlic bread, but on bagels). Clean-up soon followed, accompanied by a beautiful sunset overlooking the ever-expanding ocean and some of the 2010’s best pop hits, and now those going on the night dive are gearing up to head out soon.
Merecat’s DM and Skipper to be,
Kaleigh O.