5
Location: The Dogs
The highlight of every day here has been the diversity of the activities we do. As the days have progressed the early morning wake ups have gotten increasingly easier and I have found that I have come to enjoy listening to Brand New Day play while watching the sun pull itself over the horizon. The excitement of our day began early as one of our shipmates, Ashley, fell overboard while trying to fill the bucket used to wash dishes. As I steered away from where we moored the night before, I suddenly heard shrieks and shouts of man overboard. I quickly turned to see Ashley bobbing and clinging to the large blue dish bucket, smiling as she saw us slowly make our way back to her. The excitement of the day continued when we arrived in Road Town for the 60th annual Festival to celebrate the emancipation of slaves. The streets were milling with people who were eagerly anticipating the beginning of the parade later that afternoon. To learn more about the local culture, we split up into groups and wandered the streets asking people questions about their experience at the Festival as well as learning more about the history of the parade. We met many characters along the way including Nigeria the two-toothed, American-flag shirt wearing man who enthusiastically talked about the parade for 10 minutes straight. Later in the day we went to a Mangrove reserve and helped collect data for national parks who are trying to rebuild the Mangrove population along the coasts. With the young mangroves spreading out over the turquoise water, the area looked like a postcard. It was fantastic being able to participate in the data collection process as it made me feel like I was making a real difference instead of just observing. The day ended with an ocean shower. Jumping into the warm water with the sunset in the distance and music playing from the boat was the perfect end to our busy day.