Day Six: February 27th, 1997: Anchored in Tobago Cays

Tim, Andre and Sean went scuba diving at 7:00 a.m. They had a challenging experience, as most of their time was spent swimming upstream in a strong current. They did not return until 9 a.m. because of technical difficulties with their pickup.

Matt, Todd, and Chris Hartle, were separated from the main group, as this was their location for research. They would be on their own today, completing their transect from the shore of Barbadal, to the forereef.

The main group were paired in teams of two, and were equipped with a clipboard, and a laminated sheet for assessment of the reef. They examined all parts of the reef and took notes, with this they would be able to diagnosis the health of this reef.

Due to unforeseen difficulties, Matt, Todd and Chris who were supposed to start out first at 9:30 a.m., were sent out last and did not start until 11:20 a.m.. Although, they had until 5:00 p.m., this was not seen as a major problem. To help save them time, because of the late start, lunch would be provided at 1:00 p.m. upon the shore of Barbadal (where they were doing their transect), so they were told. Unknowingly to them, that was all changed. Lunch was now being provided on the other side of the island, as the three musketeers waited, not knowing what was going on. It was only when some of the group came hiking by, after eating, asking them ãwhat were they waiting over here for ??!ä

Matt, Todd and Chris hiked over, only to find that there little food left, hamburgers and salad, with some vegetables, had been made for lunch. There were lots of vegetables, no salad, and only five cardboard hamburgers to split amongst themselves. Each had one full burger, then they played odd man out, to see who would receive the full burger, while the other two would split the last one. Great, fighting over cardboard burgers!!








At 2:00 p.m., just after eating, just as Todd, Chris and Matt were about to get back to work, they got the ã last strawä for the day for these three musketeers. Its not 5:00p.m., but rather 3:00 p.m. when all hands had to back aboard the ship. So they said, ãFRIG ITä, we will just have to make due with what we had collected, and found a nice palm tree to lay under and relax.

Green watched raised the anchor, and we set sails for Bequia. We sailed the afternoon arriving in Bequia at night, the stars were out in full.

Anyone who stayed up on deck could see all the stars as they came right down to the horizon, an extremely different sight from that of our stars back home.