Location: Barbados
This morning we woke up to the music of Mt. Joy after an unusually exciting night of anchor watch spent listening to the booming bass of Barbados party boats floating by Vela at 3:00 am. After we all came up to the cockpit, Hannah Y. had prepared us a strawberry-poppy-seed-lemon-oatmeal-bake-thing for breakfast, which turned out great.
Last night, we made it into anchorage at Barbados, so as per usual, today was our day of Boat Appreciation (BA)! Velas been treating us well these last two passages, so she was deserving of some deep cleaning and organizing. This involved everything from squeegeeing all the hatches and portholes free of salt they had accumulated, to wiping the insides of every cupboard and drawer in the galley, and even scraping rust and barnacles off of the the hull.
Midway through BA, we ate a delicious lunch: Pasta and red sauce, again prepared by Hannah.
We were cruising through our BA, so we were able to squeeze in a scuba class for the non-certified students, as well as set out all of the scuba equipment from the laz on the deck in preparation for all the diving were going to do here in Barbados!
After BA, we all found some free time to relax, call our family and friends back home, and get ahead on some schoolwork. Eventually, it was time for dinner, which was barbecue chicken, rice, and chickpeas. During the post-dinner squeeze, the question was, What are you most excited about in Barbados? Answers consistently mentioned the scuba we would be doing, finding coffee and ice cream on shore, surfing, and exploring the island.