This March break, 12 students and two faculty members are traveling to the Bahamas to investigate the island’s varied habitats alongside educators and researchers from The Cape Eleuthera Institute (CEI) while living mindfully of their environmental impact. Please enjoy the blog post below from Cooper ’26 and Tucker ’26 as they recap the groups day full of snorkeling, beach cleanup, ice cream, shark spotting, and a Bahamas history lesson before their Down Island Tour.
Today started with the run and swim. We woke up to the sunrise and the group set out for the flagpole. We are both on the IR, so did not participate but we supported our peers, biking alongside them and taking part in what we could. Jack stormed ahead for a glorious victory. After a quick breakfast, we were back in action. We set out in vans to Greencastle where there was a blue hole for us to snorkel in. The group saw all kinds of fish that we had learned about the night before, including a huge ray as we were getting out of the water. I even found a sand dollar. We returned to campus for another quick meal before setting out for Kemps Creek beach to pick up trash. We held competitions for biggest, smallest, and coolest piece of trash found, the latter of which included a water gun, a paw-patrol pup, and hello kitty hat. We contrived stories to explain how these objects landed on the beach, which the group then judged and chose a winner. We then headed to Sabrina’s ice cream shop, which was delicious. We sat outside and played cards as we ate. Once we returned to campus, we ventured to the marina during explo time to see the sharks. They were huge! Bull, nurse, and lemons bigger than us circled by the docks. We played some cornhole on the beach before dinner (ribs, they were delicious). We capped off the night with a fun history lesson about the Bahamas, and Eleuthera in particular in preparation for our Down Island Tour tomorrow.
