Location: Slipway, Antigua
At 7 a.m., our day started with some blasting screamo music. To my surprise, after nearly five minutes of pure screaming, a few of our crew still managed to sleep through it. However, today is a busy day for us, and everyone had to get out of bed as fast as possible. After everyone is on deck, we motored to Antigua Slipway, the dock that marks both the beginning of our journey and our final destination. After we leave tomorrow, Ocean Star will be docked here with only the staff on board.
For breakfast, as Dylan, our head chef, is no longer here, we had a delicious oatmeal breakfast made by Sydnei, Steve, and Meghan. Today is our second to last day on Ocean Star. Our entire day is composed of boat appreciation or BA. Not just any BA tho, it’s BA on steroids! There were three main jobs to get done: rinsing our dive gear, cleaning everything down on the deck, and scrubbing everything below deck. Amidst all the cleaning, we also had to pack our luggage and prepare for our flights tomorrow. Cat, Hannah, Nic, and Justin started with packing first since they are on the top bunks. Once they were done, they relieved the people on the bunks below them, who started a new round of packing. Although busy, we all managed to clear out our bunks and prepare for our journey home tomorrow.
Once we all finished packing, BA started officially. People responsible for the dive kits passed all the dive kits onto land and rinsed them out in a bucket. Those who were on deck were responsible for rinsing the SCUBA tanks, putting on covers, cleaning everything in the deck box, and doing a thorough scrubbing of the deck. Below deck, the galley and the salon were cleaned meticulously, leaving out not even the corners of the bilges.
Soon we reached noon when a tasty mac and cheese was made in a combined effort by many people. After our short break, we resumed our duties to tend to Ocean Star. Although the jobs were strenuous, we maintained a positive attitude throughout, and we were quickly done at four, an hour and a half before our allotted time. Since we had over two hours until our time onshore, we all took amazing freshwater showers on land.
While we were out, we had our first non-boat meal in 40+ days, which was enjoyed by all. Following dinner, we had some quality time when we played games, talked, and reminisced about our trip. Amazing bonds were built throughout these 40 days, and we are all sad about our departure tomorrow. Onward and upward, and hope everyone the best of luck in their future endeavors!