Location: Underway to Dominica
HOWDY
From the ocean.
Attempting to hash out a timeline for this blog – I was skipper on July 16th.
That day began with fuzzy happy turtle dreams thanks to the luck we experienced the previous night, which Steph chronicled in her blog. I rose from those dreams for anchor watch (a lovely little 4 am-5 am shift), so I naturally took a few Night Boat pics and wrote down some thoughts on the turt events that transpired a few hours before.
(For context, Emile was our fantastic turtle guide, and the quotations are lyrics from the song Cold Little Heart by Michael Kiwanuka.)
Here are those early morn ramblings:
turtle nesting
the way they [our guides] could read the slightest
changes
in the sand.
and tell
that a turtle had hauled itself up the beach to nest.
red light headlamps
(so we dont frighten the turtles)
we excavated an old nest, and Emile could tell when it had been laid.
134 eggs with 100% hatch rate, cold ocean, cold little heart
do you ever want it
do you want it bad
put my palms down to the black sand and prayed that wed see a turtle. thinking,
sure things are dangerous, there are more odds stacked against you than before, but
turtle mama, you can do it. be resilient. go lay your eggs.
you can do it
and we walked for ages in sloping, sloppish sand. seeing little. hoping less. dark night, some stars. big dipper looming over us.
then finally –
a turtle mama in the bushes. fwip fwip. digging in the soft sand. speckled flippers.
once she had a hole, she started ploppin eggs like nobodys business. its hard to tell how aware or unaware she was of all of us. but didnt seem like she was too shy of an audience.
those eggs r gonna hatch and be little turtlings scurrying into the waves. theres only a slight change theyll make it but some do. despite the odds.
some of us make it.
despite the odds.
After I finished watch, I went to bed for a moment, and then we all got up and readied ourselves to depart Nevis and sail on to Dominica.
Spoiler alert: what was supposed to be a 10 am departure and a lunchtime arrival the next daystretched into arriving in Dominica around midnight on the 17th. It may not seem that prolonged, but you try being on a boat with your sense of time scrambled like an egg because of watch cycles and sense of direction skewed because all you can see is water, water, and more water.
Time gets goopy real fast.
Disclaimer: I would not have wished to be anywhere else in the world. That actually ended up being my skippers question for the evening – as much as passage can be a mixed bag, whats one place youre really glad you were NOT?
We concluded there were a lot of worse places to be: zoom class, -40 degree weather, work.
Truly, Im very proud of our little crew for the positivity we kept up while underway. Departure was awesome and still is one of my favorite things about living on Ocean Star – everyone running around to help each other, to hoist the sails, ease and sweat and make off lines, and so much more. Theres a sense of camaraderie and success bigger than yourself. Prepping for underway allows us, student sailors, to continue applying the skills our awesome staff has taught us. Especially as skipper, I had the honor of checking off our underway prep list, and so I got to follow that communal achievement closely. I included some action shots of us, like Toby navigating the charts and Lauren steering the helm. 🙂
The rocking of the ship and a ~ 40-degree slant wore on us throughout the day. It made certain things especially difficult. Cooking is typically a sweaty ordeal on the best of days. While underway, we had zesty little obstacles, like things sliding across counters and jolts that sent you headlong into the wall of pans. But despite things sliding everywhere and the environment below deck transforming into a hostile sauna, Gavin, Cameron, and Evan made lunch and dinner. Drew, Joey, and Smash took on the same challenge the next day. May the sea gods bless them a thousandfold for their sacrifice.
Other gold stars go to:
– Each person threw up because all of them were so chipper after
– Watch Team 2 for countering the meh of waking up before sunrise with the yay of singing together as the sun rose
– Amanda, for saving me a mango and restoring my health points
– All of us for choosing to give in to hysterical laughter and giggle fits rather than over-complaining about our situation. 10/10 good way to cope
– The ocean for being vast and beautiful and slightly terrifying. There is. SO. MUCH. OF IT.
And Ill leave you all with one more song. It was in Watch Team 2s sunrise serenade lineup.
Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson.
Loved ones back home- Im eating well and growing into a strong and slippery eel. I love you very much and think about you all the time. Ive found some lovely folks, and Im glad to be stuck on a boat with them. Ive seen so many cool sea critters – Ive painted a few of them, and Ill share them all when I get home. A thousand kisses upon ye.
Best fishes,
Taylor