Location: Underway to Les Saintes, Guadeloupe
Today was an extremely exciting day for many reasons! We started our last day in Antigua with breakfast and a beautiful view of the island. Everyone broke into song for Gabes birthday when he joined us for breakfast, and we gave him a little card that we made. The morning was spent preparing to set sail for the first time. Gabe ran us through all of the safety and passage training, and we practiced some skills for emergency situations, including setting up the fire hose and spraying it. Today we are going to Les Saintes, Guadeloupe. I am particularly excited for this island because it is a French island, and I am excited to see the culture and eat the food. Once we were ready to leave, we all gathered on deck and got assigned jobs and positions to open the sails and raise the anchor. I had a new job today, which was flaking the anchor! Once we were completely ready to set sail, the crew started to raise the sails. It was surreal to watch the sails go up for the first time. The sun was close to setting when we left, and it left the most beautiful view on the horizon as we all experienced sailing for the very first time. When I looked around on deck, everyone had the biggest smile on their face; it was an amazing moment. Shortly after we all ate dinner, our first meal while moving. This was fun for most, but a little bit of a struggle for some, experiencing the waves and rocking for the first time, but everyone was a trooper. Clean up after dinner looked a little different today and was a new challenge for all of us to experience, it was really cool to watch everyone stepped in wherever they could to complete all of our tasks, it felt like we were a real crew. Finally, watching teams was a new and exciting part of our night. We have three watch teams: Watch team 1- Zoe, Chloe, Alyssa, Erik, Lee, Noah; Watch team 2- Ainsley, Gabe, Aoife, Eilidh, Emma, Lizzie, Mo; and Watch team 3- Perry, Cully, Eva, Francesca, Hayden, Macklyn. The three teams rotated on three-hour shifts through the night. During our watch, we do hourly boat checks and steer the ship. I got to try this for the first time around midnight, and it was a lot of fun. My watch team and I had a wonderful time during our two watches; we played games, listened to a true crime podcast, talked, and listened to music. Today was fun, exciting, challenging, stressful at times, tiring, full of new experiences, and most of all, rewarding. I am proud of our team and of a very successful trip to Les Saintes.