Location: Muskmelon Bay, Guana Island
Today was a big sailing day. We started bright and early in Marina Cay with Jasper still on board. He slept in a hammock and said he was bumping into Scott, Milo, and Ty the whole night. While the rest of the crew woke up, August and Madeline cooked up some delicious buttermilk pancakes. Once they were done, we all feasted on them except Amelia. Instead of eating, she graciously cooked up some more pancakes for the staff to eat once they got back from their staff meeting. After breakfast, the divemasters and Stich went to Highlander. Although we lost Stich and the DMCs, we gained James and Shawn. James was our skipper for the day and Shawn was helping us sail. Our first sail was to Monkey Point, and sail group 1 did a great job on our first Jibe. Finally, they brought us to the beautiful, calm bay, and our two wonderful chefs cooked up some delicious mac and cheese.
I was planning on just having a sandwich with the deli meat I purchased, but I couldn’t resist and finished Milo’s bowl. After lunch we went on a wonderful swim where Madeline showed off her butterfly and breaststroke skills. The water was a little brisk, but that didn’t stop us from flipping and diving off the boat. Madeline, Ruby, August, and I had a fun diving distance contest, but sadly, there were no winners. After that, Milo, August, Macy, and Shawn swam to the rocky shore, carefully avoiding the hoard of sea urchins. After our swim, we set sail again, and sail group 2 brought us to Musk Mellon Bay. While the rest of us sailed, Kiki retook her open water exam and passed with flying colors. On the way there we did a man overboard drill where Annika did a wonderful job spotting the buoy.
Although it took three tries to save it on the first attempt, our second attempt went perfectly. On the way there we had a great conversation on the hard top where Ruby explained how math classes work in the UK. Finally, we got there, and it was shower time. It was supposed to be our indoor Hibishower day, but at first, the water wasn’t working, so we started with salt water. Halfway through, though, it started working, and we got to shower inside. The water was boiling hot, but that was simply because I didn’t realize I could change the temperature. After showers, we waited for the DMCs to get back since they were over an hour late. Once they got back, we finally got to eat and had delicious pasta that we all slurped up. I think August and Madeline are the best cooking duo on the ship. After dinner, Amelia briefed me on the DMCs day, so here’s what she said: The DMCs split into two groups. Alexis and Ty led two groups of Highlander to a really cool dive spot called the Chimneys, while Scott and Amelia went with Stich to “discover local diving” to learn about the local dive spots. During the dive, Ty was very excited as her group saw a small nurse shark swimming away from them. After their dives, they also had cheesy Mac for lunch.
While Highlander cleaned up lunch, the divemasters learned how to reactivate divers who hadn’t dived for a while. They led Grace (another instructor) and Stich on the dive, and they comedically began to swim with their fins on their hands and exchanged fins while the DMCs figured out how to handle the hilarious situation. Then Scott and Amelia switched with Alexis and Ty, doing Discover local diving while they took Highlander on another dive. Finally, they cleaned up the gear and sailed to meet up with us. Despite our first impressions, Amelia said Highlander was actually pretty cool, and they made friends with some of them. I just burned Ruby’s bracelet together, and the sun’s about to set. This was a nice, chill day, and we all had a lot of fun.
P.S. Mom, I got you a souvenir I think you’ll love, and I really miss everyone at home