Location: Muskmelon Bay, Guana Island
The beginning of this wonderful day began with Mike Meighan’s wonderful voice on the VHF. Breakfast was cooked by Reese and Katie, which consisted of Katie making gluten-free pancakes for herself and Reese making all the other ones. Lucy vehemently enjoyed the gluten-free pancakes, however. We had a wonderfully slow morning, as the staff members were off on a staff meeting while we children slaved away, cleaning the boat in preparation for Mike and Jim Stoll (founder of ActionQuest) for dinner later in the day. While we were waiting for the staff to come back, we listened to 100.50 Tortola on the FM radio, which was a mix of Christian worship music, reggae-ton EDM music, ads for every single business on the BVI’s, and two very strongly opinioned men talking about American politics. Once the staff came back, we had a quick 20-minute cleaning session. After we cleaned, we had a clinic run, where Malea visited the doctor to get medicine for an ear infection. Some people napped, while me, Reese, Lucy, Jasper, Sean, and Mason played slapjack, there’s no need to say who the winner is, as we all know who the master of card games is (myself). After we made it to Mountain Point, we had a ramen lunch and our first dive of the day, the Kraken. This was a man-made shipwreck, with a started project of a Kraken pulling the ship into the depths. However, hurricane Irma put a kink in the plans, leaving the “tentacles” as big chicken-wire tubes. On the dive, Megan spotted surgeonfish eggs, Reese and I spotted an octopus (!!), and everyone saw a trumpetfish. After the dive, we started sailing to Muskmelon, which took us to dinner. While underway, Parker took a nap, Jasper, Paloma, and I read books, and everybody rested. Once we reached Muskmelon Bay, Malea came back! We had a nice chili dinner with Jim and Mike, telling their fruitful stories to us about the beginning of ActionQuest. After dinner, we got ready for our last night dive! Maya saw a lionfish, Katie and I saw two big squids, Sean and Jasper saw an octopus, and Lucy and Paloma saw worms (lucky!). After the dive, we took showers and got ready to end this very relaxing yet exciting day.