Location: The Slipway, Antigua
After spending 80 whole days with Katie Pope, I have learned one thing… Katie loves the children’s book Amelia Badelia. This happens to also be one of my favorite children’s books. For those who are unfamiliar, Amelia Badelia is left alone to watch a house and given a list of chores to do, but sadly she manages to mess up every single task. The first thing on the list was changing the sheets. Ash got straight to work unthreading the mainsheet and taking off the preventer, and swapping them with nice fresh lines. The next thing on the list was to clean the heads. Max volunteered for this and ran to shore with shampoo in hand. Steve left a note to muster in the cockpit, so Celia squirted mustard all over the cockpit.
Addisen just came down and begged me to tell you all that she free-dived to 71 feet and saw a hammerhead shark while doing it. Steve is convinced that she did not see a hammerhead shark because “he hasn’t seen one,” but he also told me yesterday in the salty pit that he has seen many and has pictures to prove it. When I asked Steve how we would know it was his picture, he responded, “Well, you don’t, but at least I put in the effort to fake it.” Max also claims that he saw “a shark but maybe not the same one, and it was deep, so maybe it wasn’t a shark, actually, maybe I didn’t see it. ” I am willing to call his bluff, and maybe I am the only one.
After three strenuous hours, my bags were finally packed. For all of you back home, if you are trying to pack many things into a teeny weeny bag, maybe try putting it into a garbage bag and sucking all of the air out with shop vac. That was my plan of action.
We had our final night out, I put on my little white dress for the last time, and we loaded into the dinghies. We had a good night with great food full of reminiscing about our favorite memories on the Ocean Star. Many drinks later, we headed back to the boat and had a dance party under the red lights. We then gave the best boat tour ever, so good it should be featured on the Seamester website.
We just said goodbye to the heart of the Ocean Star, Maxibillion. To part, he hugged me and said, “Bye, Keeden.” A sweet gesture, not quite my name, though. After 80 days living with Max, I have learned that he does know my real name, but he only says it when I don’t respond to Keeden the first 3 times.
It feels like just yesterday I was riding in a van full of girls I have never met calling the boat phone to tell them there was a problem with my covid test. I remember dragging my teeny weeny blue fins and my big sunhat through the airport. And now, I am sitting in the chart house writing my last blog. I would like to believe that Steve will miss us when we leave. He will miss the balls of hair and tinsel on the floor of the chart house and Meg holding his foot during the squeeze.
We have all grown as people over these 80 days; I would even like to think that I am a little less high maintenance than when I first went into this. Maybe my parents will disagree when I get home. Addisen just said she doesn’t think I am high maintenance. Personal growth.
In the words of Julian Kates, Godspeed
Writing to you all has been such a pleasure.
Love Keaton