Colorado Springs School (Day 2)

Green Cay, St. Croix

3/4/35

Written by students Morgan, Brody, Izzy, Hudson, Melinda

We are group C, otherwise known as the coolest, the classiest, and the Craken. This was the first night that we got to do anchor watch. Anchor watch is an hour during the night where we are tasked with watching the anchor, taking distances in order to see if the anchor was dragging, and having a midnight snack. Anchor watch was accompanied by stargazing which was beautiful, and for those of us who slept on the deck we were woken up by a light drizzle of rain.

By 8:00 we we’re on the deck and ready to feast. We had scrambled eggs, fruit, and latkes. Then we did chores after breakfast, which consisted of cleaning the head and soles of the main hold. For those of you who don’t know, a head is the toilet and the sole is the floor. To our surprise it was not as bad as we thought it would be. Then we started our journey to the Coral Reef Conservation institute in a motor-boat which then we got into a taxi with fun music. After this, we went to the Coral Reef Conservation institute, where we learned about coral and how the process of fragmentation includes cutting them, regrowing them, and releasing them back into the wild. They used this data to better understand how they grow and how to prevent future coral damage within ecosystems. One of the few things we found interesting was a thing called Zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae is a microorganism that goes inside of the coral and photosynthesises. When this happens various colors are phenotypically noticeable. This is the color you see on coral. Fun Fact, coral is actually a community of tiny organisms made up of zooxanthellae and coral polyps which are the actual organism surrounded by the coral structure and are very tiny/see through.

After we returned back to our ship, we learned how to raise the anchor, set the sails, and coil balentines. This was very complex because of the amount of tasks and hot sun. We then anchored our boat a mile or two away from Green Cay, an uninhabited island, where we did our first swim test; swimming from one side of the boat to the other successfully. Subsequently, we continued to have fun in the water before eating and doing chores. We look forward to the rest of the days at sea, especially for swimming and exploring the islands around us.

-C Watch