The Hike was Kinda Hard
Location: Statia
Hey Blog!! Welcome to our adventure on Statia.
This morning we woke up bright and early at 6:30. Only Megan and Sofia were still asleep, so it wasn't too hard waking everyone up. After waking up, everyone got ready for the day, and we started with breakfast around 6:50. We had bagels provided by our head chef, Katie, and sous chef Zoe. After breakfast, we started shuttling to shore at 7:15. We met up with Ocean Star on the dock. From there, we went to the immigration services with Tom.
Once we were done with immigration services, we started our journey to the starting point of our hike. It took us about 30 minutes walking uphill until we reached the bottom of the Quill. From there, we started in a big group to make our way up. Yellow Vivian brought a speaker with her and was playing music the whole way up. Nat, Tessa, and I eventually created our own little trio behind the group. We were a bit slower, but we ended up catching up on every break. Tom and Sophia were at the end of our group and met up with us at the top. After about an hour and a half, our whole group was at the top of the Quill, enjoying amazing views of the inside of the crater. Unfortunately for Tessa and me, we found a false top about 15 minutes away from the real top. We finished the climb while complaining the whole time. The view was 100% worth the hot and muggy hike up. It took us about 45 minutes to make our way back down. By this time, everyone's shoes were covered in dirt up to our knees. We all felt like hot, sweaty messes.
On the way back into town, we stopped at a little convenience store where a few of our group stopped to get cold drinks. I got an apple juice, and it was delicious. Tessa and Katie both got a Pepsi, and it was definitely their favorite thing post-hike. We met up with everyone at Scubaqua, where most of us got souvenirs and signed up for lunch on shore. Multiple groups went their separate ways for lunch. My group included Tessa, Katie, Sofia, Luci, Francesca, Megan, and Sydney. We went to the old Gin House, where we saw Nat, Tom, Perry, and Annika. For lunch, many of us enjoyed a club sandwich, a burger, or a wrap. To go along with that, everyone enjoyed a nice, cold, refreshing drink.
After lunch, we made our way back over to the Dinghy dock, where we met back up with everyone else to head back to our respective boats. On Gintini, we only had a few minutes to freshen up and get ready to head over to Ocean Star. Once on Ocean Star, we started our hands-on training for EFR. We split up into three groups to start. My group included Tessa, Megan, red Vivian, Hannah, Lindsey, and Haley. We started with Zoe, who taught us how to deliver Emergency Oxygen. Next, we joined Nat, who taught us how to use an AED. Finally, we headed over to Perry to teach us CPR on dummies, Lindsey and I named ours Fred. After each group section was over, Perry taught us how to put someone in the recovery position. Woody was the volunteer for the first example, and Megan was the volunteer for the second example, when there was a possible spinal injury. After that, Perry and Annika demonstrated how to deliver a back blow and an abdominal thrust to someone who is choking. Perry also explained how to stop excessive bleeding by adding pressure to the wound. Finally, Katie volunteered to be Zoe's example for how to attach a splint and a sling. Once that example was over, we all got to practice, and Tessa, Katie, and I practiced on each other.
After EFR training was over, we shuttled all the TiniGirls back to Gintini. Here we enjoyed ocean showers to wash off the grime and sweat of the day, and all of us were cleansed multiple times. After the showers, we all sat down for dinner and enjoyed pancakes made by Katie and Zoe. Following dinner, we shared our favorite memories of the day, and I asked the question, "If you could pick any talent to master, what would it be?" After going around the circle we finished squeeze by doing one squeeze and three frat flicks, this was just a way to get Tom to do it after Tessa taught him about it during our first passage watch shifts.
After dinner, we all cleaned up and relaxed until Tom started our lesson about VHF. This is the last thing of the day. He taught us what each button on the VHFs does and the differences between the four different types. We went over how to contact another boat and how to send out an emergency hail, such as a mayday. Mayday uses an acronym MIP DANIO—Mayday Identity Position Danger Assistance Number of people Information Over. After learning the Mayday protocol, we went over the phonetic alphabet and went over example Mayday calls. We were all falling asleep during our fake Maydays, so Tom quickly finished up so we could all start making our beds. We have all recently discovered our preferred sleeping spots.
Goodnight Blog from the TiniGirls!