Relaxation Station: Colorado Springs School Day 3
Esperanza, Vieques, Puerto Rico
Aidan Y. (‘23) Mia L. (‘24) Taylor H. (‘23)
We spent the day anchored in Esperanza with a full day of adventures ahead. After the long night of anchor watches, we mainly focused on making sure we stayed in the anchor circle. We had an early wake up call at 6:45 am. We had a quick breakfast and got straight into chores. Chores include: breakfast set up and clean up, fish and fo’c’sle soles, and deck wash.
By 10 am we had started taking turns on the dory to get to shore. Once everyone was on land we started our walk to the head of the trail. It took us longer than expected to find the trail, since no one really knew where we were going. Once we found the trail we started hiking to the top of a beautiful cliff. We sat at the top, taking in the view, and eating snacks for a while before it was time to head back to the boat for lunch.
After lunch we completed our chores and some of the crew members, Taylor and Sienna, gave us lessons on bioluminescence and point of sail. We learned that bioluminescence are dinoflagellates and are a part of the eukaryotic family. There are a couple predictions of why they might produce this glow. 1. They are trying to attract other creatures that eat their predators. 2. They are trying to use the light to scare away their predators. Then Sienna spoke about the points of sail. Some names are: in irons, close hauled, reach, broad reach, and dead down wind. This presentation taught us a lot about the physics of sailing and the millennium questions. Right after the presentations we had swim/shower time.
We then started to prepare to go kayaking. We were told that our appointment was at 7 pm by a confirmation email, but we thought we had until 9 pm. Our cook, Jen, then rushed to get dinner ready. Right after dinner had been set out, and we all started to eat as fast as possible, we were informed that our appointment was in fact at 9 pm. We then had a small break to prepare and rest before we started shuttling people back to the docks with the dory.
Once we were all on land, we started our small walk where we would meet our bus, Mellow Yellow. It was a 15 minute drive to Mosquito Bay. This bay has the largest amount of dinoflagellates, meaning the bay’s bioluminescent glow is the brightest in the whole world. Our guide Ethan showed us around the bay and taught us about the Mangrove trees and how they help increase the population of dinoflagellates. We also learned that the water in the bay's deepest point is only 12 feet, and most of the bay is only 4-6 feet deep. After our tour, we headed home and started our anchor watch rotations while everyone else went to bed.
