Don’t Worry Little Crab
Location: Antigua
I'm back for my second and last blog as skipper!
After waking everybody up at 7:00 am with some Noah Kahan, Sam + Lusi made us some delicious pancakes (with an assortment of Nutella, syrup, and peanut butter). Right after breakfast, we all got ready for our last sail of the trip, and although it was only a 20-minute passage, we soaked in every minute of it. We began our sail with all of us sitting on the roof of the boat, and then we quickly shifted downstairs to finish our goodbye letters (many of us were very far behind). Once we arrived at our destination, Nelson's Dockyard, Emi + Katie + Nat + Lusi all helped dock the boat by setting up the fenders. Once here, Tom + Nat + Zoe explained to us our duties of the day, which were another BOAT APPRECIATION but a much deeper clean this time since we are leaving tomorrow. Tessa, Katie, Lusi and Sofia were in charge of cleaning the salon. Megan cleaned the port forward room while I cleaned our bathroom. Throughout this process, many of us would take a break and continue writing goodbye cards because there are just so many of them to write!
For lunch, we were given free time to go on land and find a nice restaurant to eat at. We stopped at the first place we found and got a big table for 10 of us while more Ocean Star students met up with us afterward. I got an amazing cooked salmon wrap while others got entrees such as the Tuna Poke Bowl or a cheeseburger. We were also able to go to a souvenir shop to get gifts for ourselves and for our friends/family during this time!
After lunch, we finally got to hosing down the outside of the boat and scrubbing it with soft soap. I, Francesca, was the first one to hose down the boat while Lusi scrubbed it. Then, Tessa joined in and so did Katie.
After many hours of deep cleaning, the boat was finally in tip-top shape! This is when the staff started getting dinner ready. They were hard at work for a long time, cooking up the BBQ chicken and okonomiyaki, which were both surprisingly delicious (big shout out to Annika, Nat, Tom, Perry, and Gabe for preparing it).
We had a very cute dinner on the dock, where we all grabbed our food and sat around in circles while we hung out and talked. We did our last squeeze of the trip, and the two questions that were asked were "If you could relive any day of the trip, which day would you pick?" And "What is your biggest takeaway from the trip or lesson that you learned?" We ended our squeeze with a tight group hug. Then, we closed out our night by listening to Gabe read the children's story "Don't Worry Little Crab". We did a massive clean up where all of the salties, gophers, drophers, and dryers joined together.
I am so happy that I am able to write the final blog, but it's so hard to just end it here. All of us have grown and learned so much from this experience. It has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I think all of us know that and will cherish these memories together forever.
This is Gintini girls + Tom signing off!