Location: Gustavia, St. Barthelemy
This morning, we were treated to a lovely pancake breakfast thanks to our head chef, Ellie, and her sous chefs, Hana and Madalyn. Then the students were off! To explore St.Barth’s and all it has to offer, from beaches and natural pools, watersports, and lots of very fancy stores and fancier people. Some stayed around Gustavia, shopping and window shopping, seeing if they could pull off pretending to be French and nibbling on pastries even if they were ordered in English. Others went to further beaches and trail walks. Many of the OStar’s crew climbed to the top of an old fort and got a photo with Ocean Star in the background (will be in tomorrow’s blog).
We all met back up for lunch – though today it wasn’t held in our cockpit, but on a nice picnic spread worthy of Below Deck, on St. Barth’s aptly named Shell Beach. We ate our charcuterie board and sandwiches and swam in the clear blue water, pretending we were the charter guests on a superyacht and not a group of people getting stronger each day from our pump-action toilets. Some chicken fought the CAT crew in the water, preparing for our upcoming Boat Olympics showdown, which is a field day esque time of goofy challenges to see who prevails victorious. Many spent the afternoon at the beach after our picnic, eager to cool down in the water and take in the lovely view.
For dinner, we had Penne Alle Vodka Sans Vodka — special shoutout to Ethan for stepping in to cook as he arrived back to the boat early! It was delicious. The squeeze question tonight was, “If you could have any superpower, what would it be?” but then the person next to you chose a caveat to that superpower. For instance, I wanted to teleport, but Nick decided I would only be able to teleport from one DMV to another. Ellie wanted to fly, but Hana only allowed her to do it in increments of 200 feet. Ben wanted to be able to meet his entire ancestral lineage at once, but Tevon decided they were all French 😛
We have a bit of weather developing in the Southern Caribbean right now that, in an abundance of caution, has led us to reroute our trip slightly. We are headed off, as planned, as we speak to Statia, to dive the shipwreck that we’re all so looking forward to and spend some time ashore, hiking to the Crater Rim of a dormant volcano, maintaining our daily ice cream quota, or just being on solid ground. After a fun-filled day exploring Statia, we will continue onto St. Kitts, as it offers a bit more protection than its neighboring Nevis, to wait for the bad weather to pass. This means we get to be on the dock again! This is very exciting to this group’s affinity for the low side of the passage and the chance to catch up on sleep as we try to pack as much as possible into the second half of this trip. Already over halfway done, but we have so much left to do!
Looking forward to sharing it with you all.