Location: Marigot Bay, St. Lucia
The final day in St Lucia had a familiar start, with Bret and Wills now patented Pancake Extravaganza for breakfast. Fortunately, at the fourth attempt, the Gatorade and Froot Loops pancakes have given way to the more palate-friendly chocolate, cinnamon, and raisin varieties. Breakfast also came with an added surprise as Will got into the Halloween spirit early and appeared in an incredibly bright banana suit to the delight of the whole marina! Classes started with a bit of a change, a pen and paper gave way to scalpels, forceps, and some fishy friends for dissection. Now comfortable with fish and invertebrate anatomy, the students got into their pickled smoothhound sharks and starfish and successfully removed various parts (it could be said that some got a little carried away with their probing!) for viewing under the microscope, with the skin, gills, and jaws being viewed in a new light. Following a thorough clean up, lessons continued as normal with Oceanography (and estuaries in particular) rounding off the morning session. A brief move to the fuel dock was sandwiched between chances to relax in the cafe of the Marigot resort, as staff and students alike enjoyed some of the finer things in life (coffee, cake, and a launderette). This was also a chance for a number of tourists to come and admire Ocean Star before her next voyage (and Will in his banana suit). With dinner fast approaching, a mad dash was made to scramble together an outfit for Halloween, with sheets, towels, wetsuits, and life rings being donned to create the desired effect. As the call for dinner was made, the shipmates were taken aback as the Penguin and Cat Woman came rushing out of the chart house with Batman and Robin in hot pursuit! Following an impressive lasagne, the call was made to get ready to set sail, and everyone jumped to their posts. Unfortunately, the weather did not get the message, and no sooner had we let the bow line off the dock than the heavens opened up. This made moving to open waters a bit more tricky, and Exy (one of the 2 RIBs) was used to lead Ocean Star out through the channel. Through some smooth navigation and good sailing skills, we made our way safely out, collecting Collin and me (now resembling two drowned rats) from Exy along the way, hoisted the sails and headed for Martinique!