Location: Slipway, English Harbor, Antigua
Hello, Blog Readers far and wide,
Today was an exciting day because we got to move Ocean Star for the first time in weeks! We did a quick jump over to The Slipway at English Harbor and tied up to the same dock space that we were in when all of our shipmates joined us back in February. The flies are back in swarms and the protection that The Slipway offers from wind and swell also results in a very warm boat, but that’s okay, I hear sweating is a great detox. Once we were on the dock, we hopped into our dinghies to help our friends on Argo get onto the travel lift so that they could be hauled out. This is quite the operation and required lots of workers from the yard that we really appreciated. I was fortunate enough to transport a few of them to Argo, and we instantly became the best of friends. We have already started bumping into old friends around the yard (not literally “bumping into” because that would invalidate social distancing laws), and we are excited for our friends from Argo to move onto Ocean Star for the time being. The salon will be semi-full once again!
Although we only have one more day of program and thus one more virtual squeeze, I have really enjoyed being able to catch up with a few shipmates every night at a squeeze. At squeeze this evening, Faith informed us about how many holidays fall onto April 23rd. These included ‘English language appreciation day’ (which we celebrated by speaking English during squeeze), ‘lost dogs awareness day’ (so be grateful for your dogs that aren’t lost), and even ‘talk like Shakespeare day’ (which Steve celebrated by performing Hamlet for us all on deck). So as you can tell, today is quite the day.
The world is in a weird place at the moment, but I hope that everyone has found some new hobbies to keep themselves occupied while at home. The squeeze question today was, “What is one skill that you learned while aboard Ocean Star that you have brought home with you?” Answers varied from using more knots and cooking better to making award-winning pizza dough. Our final squeeze is tomorrow evening, but I hope that everyone continues to use their new-found skills from Ocean Star well into the future.
Happy National Pigs in a Blanket Day,
Lolo