Location: Great Harbor, Peter Island
(Please play Sandstorm while reading the blog for the full experience)
At 5 am, I was awoken by Ri stomping around the boat; he was getting back from his morning dive to check on the fish. I then went back to sleep for one more hour. At 6 am, the whole boat had the delightful wake-up song of a sandstorm. It then continued to play on a loop for 3 hours. After everyone was dressed, Logan and Asa prepared our breakfast of boat-meal and fruit. I had to cut the mango because Asa kept hitting the pit. We ate breakfast quietly because no one could hear over the deafening yet awe-inspiring sound of sandstorms on the speakers. After we ate and cleaned up, we set sail for the Rhone. As we sailed, I made turkheads for JJ, Riley, And Wylie. Once we got closer to the Rhone, we realized that Sail Caribbean was occupying all the mooring balls.😒 Ri, King of the Fish, made the decision to hike on Salt Island first in order to give the mooring balls time to open up. We got dressed and hopped in the dinghy for a short ride to Salt Island Beach. We met up with the other dive side boats on the beach and waited to begin the hike. Kylar told us the story of the Rhone and informed us that we were standing on a mass grave site. He also told us that the residents of Salt Island have to pay a tax of one pound of salt to the royal family each year. The royal family eats the salt on Christmas day.😛 We hiked up the hill for about 15 minutes before reaching the top. Lots of pictures were taken, especially with little Tom Tom. Shane and Asa walked to the edge of the cliff and pondered life’s mysteries, which was a sight to behold. 🗿We took a group photo and headed back down to the beach. We took the first dingy back to the boat to swim a little before we moved. Tatum did flips off the boat and it was very cool. Ri then gave us a Zinc tattoo tour. Once everyone was on the boat, we motored over to the Rhone. Ellery, Gabi, and I did the mooring ball. We assembled our dive kits and had a dance party while a sandstorm played in the background. Little Tom Tom and BVI Batman showed us the sandstorm dance, and we got Sail Caribbean to join in. 🕺We all met in the cockpit to dive brief and then did buddy checks. We met at the bow and descended as a group. Our initial depth was about 65 feet, and our max depth was around 75. We did two swim-throughs on the dive and saw a giant lobster. 🦞 We put our dive gear up and then set sail for GHP. While we sailed, some of us did our oxygen books, and the rest of us napped. We sailed very slowly since we only had the jib open. Once we got to GHP, we got our gear set up for our second nav dive. We went in two groups to practice underwater panic diver and then resurfaced to brief for our last dive. Half of us searched for Rachel, and the other half searched for Ri. When we all got back on the boat, we showered and got ready for Visar. ⛵️(Virgin Island Search and Rescue) We made a fake scenario to call in where we all played different parts. We decided that the compressor exploded and hurt everyone. Riley and I lay on the trampoline with tanks on our backs. Tatum played unconscious in the laz while Asa lay on the roof with ketchup all over him. Laine and JJ walked around the boat, screaming and asking questions during the emergency. Once the Visar volunteers arrived, everyone started screaming or playing dead. It was so funny, and we got to be super difficult to deal with for their training. Once the volunteers got everyone in their boat, we went for a ride and wore cool helmets. We then debriefed in the cockpit and asked a bunch of questions about Visar. We drove over to the other boats and made a mega raft with all the dive side boats. For dinner, we had Mexican, and it was amazingly spectacular. Everyone is getting ready to go on other boats. 😃 We made a vlog of the day, and it’s so slay. Also, Dad, please bring Defog and Brookside chocolates and Kennedy, Molly, and Kyleigh. I miss you 😘