Anegada sail and coffee shots

Current location: Just outside Anegada, BVIs, 18°40’31’’N 64°23’23’’ W

We have almost arrived to our destination; Anegada – the flattest island of the British Virgin Islands. This island owes its existence to the reefs surrounding it as they absorb up to 90% of all of the wave energy that hits the shore. Without functioning and healthy reefs this island would be washed out to sea. Throughout my time here I have certified more than one hundred teenagers in Project AWARE’s coral reef conservation course, where I teach them the importance of the reefs and why a functioning ecosystem is so important. It’s a great thing to then be able to take the students to an island that would disappear if we weren’t trying to take care of the environment. The consequences of not taking care of our surroundings are very real and seeing them first hand I think is the best way to learn. The last week has, I guess as always, been a little crazy. All of the theory for scuba diving for the entire flotilla has as by a miracle been gone through by no more than 5(!) scuba instructors and we are well on our way to certify all of them (Big cred to all of you – you are amazing!). We have also been snorkeling mangroves, had a beach barbeque, sailed around the islands like a yoyo, done water sports and taught them to appreciate salt-water showers. The amount of activities we manage to fit into a day is equally as impressive as it is over-whelming. At this point I have been down here for about two months, and the constant early mornings and late nights, and activities in between, are starting to get to me. The awesome experience that we are creating for these teenagers come with a price: exhaustion. Two nights ago was supposed to be my night off, I was excited to catch up on some sleep, but I ended up “playing heads” late into the night. After a couple of hours of taking an entire head (boat toilet) apart and smashing calcified hoses and parts the head was functioning again, the only thing left to was to clean up… I felt a great sense of accomplishment of having taken apart and put back together every single functional unit of a head, but lost my lifted spirits when the realization came that another head on the boat has now seized to function. Accordingly, on tonight’s agenda I have a night dive and then another battle with poop, pee and calcified drainage. The staff of Tiger Pause has now resorted to taking coffee shots in the mornings to make it through the day:

The secret recipe for a coffee shot:

½ cup of cold coffee

3 spoons of Nescafé

2 spoons of Sugar

2 spoons of Nesquick chocolate

Drink will be saturated with coffee, try to stir as much as possible. Drink with caution. Finish up with a spoon of Nutella. Carry on with your day, all of a sudden feeling human again. Repeat as necessary.