15
Location: Sidney's, Jost van Dyke
Today began with some very solid breakfast and a quick sail from where we had spent the previous night to Brewer’s Bay, where we would be spending the majority of today. Our morning was devoted to turtle tagging, using the method of pulling 3 or 4 students at a time behind a dinghy with a ski line. This method brought about some success after a pretty short time, and we were able to catch a very elusive hawksbill turtle using the willpower of nearly all of the students from both boats. Once caught, we switched into research mode and went about the process of tagging and gathering data about the turtle, who we named Juice. Once finished with the tagging process, we released our reptilian friend and had some quality lunch. After lunch, we all went over to the other Lifeworks boat and swam around for a little while before splitting into groups. I got in the dinghy with Beezie and Elliot and several other students, and we explored a new reef within the bay while the other two groups snorkeled a different reef and stayed on Kes Kat, respectively. My group found a few lionfish and marked their location and made an effort, but failed to catch a small green turtle. Once back from our snorkeling adventures, we took quick showers in the ocean to get ourselves cleaned up for tonight’s barbecue at Sydney’s Peace and Love on Jost Van Dyke, the end to a fun and eventful day.