Jasper ’25 & Christian ’25, reflect on an action packed day including an early morning run swim, an afternoon of shark field research, and a “scrumptious” dinner at Sheryl’s Inn.
To start the day, Christian and I woke up at 5:45 am for a morning workout on the beach: pushups, sprints, and swimming. A great start to the day with a beautiful sunrise backdrop over a calm, blue ocean. The group gathered at 6:30 am to continue the workout with a Run Swim, a series of sprinting and swimming broken up by workouts led by our Island School leader Sam Kosoff. Although challenging, the group activities forced us to work together to complete the provocations.
After the Run Swim, the group ate a healthy breakfast of bagels, fried eggs, sausage, and a refreshing guava juice. After breakfast, we took the vans to the Davis Marina beach where others took part in various leisurely activities such as book-reading, water- swimming, and sun-tanning. I enjoyed my time reading For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, while Christian was indulging in Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling.
After the beach, we ate a hearty lunch of pasta with chicken parmigiana, accompanied by the same rejuvenating guava juice. After lunch had culminated, we departed from the Island School once again, however this time we were mounted upon the Red Rising motorized watercraft. We took the vessel to a protected region of the island, that was exceedingly potent of lemon and nurse sharks. Accompanied by a Marine Biology professor, Natasha, we practiced carefully catching, measuring, and blood-testing juvenile sharks in order to better understand how heavy metals build up in sharks, just one of the field-research projects that the Cape Eleuthera Institute conducts. We were all able to partake in chumming the water and using the net to catch the sharks, and then feel the dermal denticles of the sharks skin. It was quite a unique experience that we may never have the chance to experience again.
For dinner, we were treated to a family-style meal at Sheryl’s Inn. It was a lovely scrumptious meal, thoroughly filled with cackles of joy. After dinner, we all met at the beach for a bonfire where we reflected upon the past few days and spoke about the highs, lows, and what we will take from this experience.
Jasper: My favorite part of the day was the dinner at Sheryl’s. Although the field research was incredibly interesting, I feel that the dinner was a fantastic conclusion to my time at the Cape Eleuthera Institute as it fully embodied the loving, inclusive group that I am a part of on this trip. There was laughter, story-telling, and great food that was the finishing touch to an eye-opening trip.
Christian: My favorite part of the day was the bonfire at night. Each of us were able to share our favorite memories over the past four days, while watching the steady glow of the fire. As we sat on the logs around the fire, I noticed the stars that scattered across the dark sky. Usually I can make out the big dipper at night, but today the whole sky was shining with tiny white dots of all sizes. Also during the bonfire, I liked hearing each person’s perspective of the trip, and how we all spoke on how the low of the trip was the bugs.
