Location: Pearns Point, Antigua
I was woken by Julia at 1 in the morning, and as far as middle-of-the-night wake-ups go, hers was pretty nice. My watch was pleasantly uneventful, with just a misting of rain and a splattering of tropical stars to keep me company. I woke up Isabel at 1:53 to take over for me. She emerged from the foxhole with a rain jacket and book in hand, and I fell into a fitful sleep with dreams featuring Mike and a group of sirens trying to serenade us away from our watches. Very scary stuff. My second wakeup occurred by an alarm. Not because I was skipper, because I had no idea that was the case at that point in the morning, but rather because I had to study for our upcoming exams. When I tiredly descended into the salon, there was already a small crew working away on various assignments. Margeaux, our head chef for the day, was already at work on a delicious breakfast.
After breakfast, we began discussing our student-led passage to Barbuda. We nominated and then voted on who would fill the roles of Skipper, Bosun, Navigator, and Deckie. Congratulations to Margeaux, our first student-elected skipper, and Ruth-Riley, our first Bosun. After Seamanship, our first dive group went out. Some of our research teams used this opportunity to collect data, while those of us who stayed behind used the time to study. Before lunch, the navigators for the student-led passage broke out the charts to start planning the trip. For lunch, Margauex made matzah ball soup. She did this by crushing matzah crackers and using eggs as a binding agent. Creative and delicious! After lunch, dive group two went out. There were tons of juvenile fish and flamingo worms. I was especially enchanted by the baby stoplight parrotfish, which were a fraction of the size of any fish I’d seen of that species before. Upon arrival back to the boat, I was greeted with the chaos of the spa day. I found Lenox, Isa, Ruth-Riley, and Julia moisturizing, exfoliating, and cleansing on deck. For dinner, we had latkes with apple sauces and sour cream. They were delicious.
Sophie
1-Spa day crew
2-A continuation of the weird toe obsession we have on this boat
3-Zoe enjoying herself in the midday sun
4-RuthRiley and Julia doing whatever they’re doing
5-Julia and Xonel making the same face in the same mirror without realizing it
6-Fun in the Galley
8-Ben and Chief chilling
9-Latkes
10-Will in water
11-Will research diving
12-Me, in my happy place, driving a boat