Location: UW to St. Barths
Howdy!
To start, I ask all of you a simple question: What comes before part b?
PARTAYYYYYYY.
And that’s exactly what we did allllll day. Welcome to the party recap and my blog for the day- which just happens to be my birthday! And let me tell you – I had SO MUCH FUN! I think other people had fun too. But most importantly, I had fun.
To start, Ash made me a coffee – a privilege on board, as his coffee is soooo good. Some of you may have heard of Cafe Ash (IYKYK! Is that how you use that? I’m old now, ya know…), and it never disappoints. I admit I am quite a frequent recipient of free Cafe Ash coffees (at least two a day?), but they are cherished and appreciated nonetheless.
THEN. I got to take us off anchor so we could move up to Deshais, where Nick cleared us out. We rolled up, and I simultaneously got Irish Coast and Jumanji Jungle vibes. How did I get those at the same time? Nobody knows. I will say the massive clouds/bouts of rain and fog, paired with the lush green backdrop, certainly helped. I, for one, love rain, which is great news, because it rained A LOT. Like off and on for hours. But a little (or a lot of) rain can’t stop the Ocean Star crew, and it certainly can’t stop my birthday celebration. Can’t stop, won’t stop, as they say.
While Nick cleared us out, I taught a class about storms (how fitting) and El Nino – if you don’t know about it, google it! It’s crazy and has so many impacts! Or just ask whoever you know on this trip… hopefully, they were paying attention.
THEN, we finished up passage prep and got underway to St. Barths. Are you picturing a massive squall just as we’re picking up anchor, raising sails, and trying to dodge all the buoys dotted off the coast of Guadeloupe? Oh! And in the middle of it all, Ari walking around with a bowl of lettuce and essentially playing cash cab with said lettuce until the entire bowl was reduced to only five pieces? Because if you are, you’ve got the scene perfectly. By the end, everyone was DRENCHED. And also, having such a good time. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! I’m so proud of our crew for having such a positive attitude and making the most of literally so many things happening all at once.
Then it calmed down for a bit, but only a bit. Just as my watch team took over, Deckie’s, shall we say – spidey-senses took over, and he alerted us to “something he’s sensing over there.” We all look to see another wall of squall coming right at us. Time to get drenched, round two. I took the helm, and my team readied themselves at their stations (Staysail/jib, foresail, and main sheets). However, just as the wind started to pick up, I heard a faint whimper of “Ahh. It’s my dream to helm in a squall” from behind me. Obvi, I’m in the biz of making dreams come true. So I said, “Deckie, get back on this helm!” And Deckie helmed us through the squall (see photo)!!! I obvi stayed on hand for assistance, but he did so well! As did my whole team – go team 3 (everyone loves team 3)! Then the skies cleared just in time for a delicious dinner of Pad Thai and Pineapple (no mangoes) sticky rice – HUGE shout out to Grace and Elodie. Cheffing underway is not easy. AND they made a dessert. Grace is a dessert-first type of person, so I actually started my meal with some birthday pineapple sticky rice – what a dream!! After squeeze and cleanup, we closed out our watch in the only possible way – a sing-along to Mamma Mia.
So yeah. It was a pretty epic day.
And now I’m 30 – Sissy’s dream age. And quite frankly, probably mine too. Life is so fun! Huge, huge shout out to all the people (both near and far) that made today and every day so special.
P.s. For those of you wondering about the cheddar broc, it actually turned out pretty good. Obvi, I still love the risotto and will cherish it forever. But Cheddar broc is not half bad either.