Location: St George, Grenada
By 6:00 am, the timid turquoise light that lights the early-morning sky was replaced by a more confident orange-yellow glow that poured over the mountains to the east, and the masts of the sailboats in our little bay were perked up eagerly in anticipation of the exciting day to come. Down below deck, the smell of a traditional Venezuelan breakfast, coffee, and (at 7:00 am) a little bit of Ella Fitzgerald blended together to make for a very warm ambiance to wake up to, and indeed, everyone was chipper and hungry by the time breakfast came around. Izzy (head chef), Ash, and Adelaide made delicious arepas for breakfast, which were so good that even the fire alarm chimed in to voice its praise! As a matter of fact, the fire alarm seemed to really enjoy Izzy’s cooking, as it came back for lunch, too. When the time came for clean-up, spirits on ‘Ocean Star’ were high from a wonderful breakfast and likely also from the newly-greased head pumps, which confirmed that the pumps were getting stiffer, not that we were getting weaker. As the dishes crew jammed to spooky music, inspired either by the month of October or the smoky galley, the deckies finished cleaning the deck, and we soon headed down to Marine Biology, where we learned about worms and mollusks. Twenty minutes after class ended, it was time for Seamanship, and after going through a few modules of the International Crew Course, it was time to practice our knot tying! Luke and Julia were already pros, of course, having tied bowlines with their toes during our passage down to Grenada. As people sifted above deck for knot-tying, several of us who were already in the cockpit were privy to an interesting conversation over the chart house radio, in which we learned that a certain Lisa wasn’t going to be making her lunch date, after all.
Speaking of lunch, Izzy and sous chefs blew us all away again with amazing tacos, and we all ate happily near the tarp, under a sky that couldn’t seem to decide whether to shower us with rain or sunshine. After our count-off, Steve informed us that customs officials are requiring us to undergo an eight-day quarantine before going ashore. Hence, it looks like we’ll have plenty of time to continue enjoying our current surroundings. Whatever the case, I think it’s safe to say that we’ll stay healthy, especially considering that we spent all afternoon completing our Emergency First Response course. Things got real ketchupy really quickly, but with all of our fake injuries properly handled, our one-and-a-half-hour video watched, and laughs and playfulness abounding, the afternoon’s course was a success.
In preparation for dinner, many of us took a long-awaited shower and, lathered in soap, jumped off the bowsprit into the gorgeous sunset (and rainbow), filling our bay with the warmest of colors; red, orange, yellow, and purple streaked across the blue-gray sea and sky, setting a perfect backdrop for dinner. Dinner, of course, did not disappoint, and after a squeeze that was even warmer than the sunset, we headed down for our final class of the day, Oceanography. This is where our long and class-packed day ended. With thoughts of gas saturation, ketchup, and Riley, who’s been waiting for me to finish writing so that we can finally watch an episode of something that we both love, I bid you all goodnight and wish you health and peace of mind knowing that we’re all safe and having an amazing time.
Best,
Will
Pictures
1. Lenox volunteers to be the patient as Ash asks someone to demonstrate moving her to the recovery position
2. Dishes crew dances to “The Monster Mash” (Riley was appropriately drying a knife at the time)
3. Knot time!
4. Waiting for the EFR video to start
5. Mid-video selfie!
6. Master chefs
7. Working hard or hardly working?
8. Saving Pierre (which was surprising, considering Luke’s ‘mixed’ feelings towards the French)
9. Beautifully performed CPR by Pearse (and a nice smile from Isabel)!
10. Saving Ash
11. Sunset caught by Callum
12. Blissful Margeaux
13. Droplets by Callum
14. About to jump in for a shower!
15. Jumping in for a shower!
16. In the shower!
17. Out of the shower (boys’ prom)!
18. Riley
19. Lenox and Julia
20. Riley – a new perspective (taken by Callum)