Location: St. Vincent
Firstly if you understood the title correctly, you had a great childhood. For those that didnt its in reference to a small angry Scottish referee on the 90s classic tv show Gladiators; this will become important later on.
The day first began in the early hours of this morning, at 7 am, the shipmates awoke to the beautiful baritone of my voice telling them to get up and get ready. They did so with relative haste as what was awaiting them on deck was breakfast. A good sturdy breakfast of yogurt and granola was on the cards along with some fruit. Todays fruit was pineapple, and here are some fun facts about pineapples:
Hawaii produces about 1/3 of all pineapples in the world.
Pineapples are a cluster of hundreds of fruitlets.
Pineapples take about 18-20 months to become ready to harvest.
You may be asking yourself right about now, what is a fruitlet? Well, its a small immature fruit, which is a bit unfair to say so if you ask me, Im sure its perfectly mature for its age.
After breakfast, we upped anchor with ease and headed off for a small move to St. Vincent. During that time, seamanship was had underway. It was decided to take a quick break from Navigation and have a go at some hands-on-deck Olympics..Deck Olympics, you say, its exactly how it sounds: the greatest athletes from all over Ocean Star converge in the cockpit to compete in a series of grueling challenges that even the toughest, bravest most intellectual person would struggle with. Some of the games include planking atop the mast, deadlifting the dinghies, squatting with the anchors. Some were even tested to see who had the most serene voice to call upon the sirens of the sea. However, it was quickly realized that these challenges might be a bit much for our brave competitors, so instead, we divided the group into two teams while we yelled random parts of the boat, and one person from each team had to shimmy their way to the point or object. It was this that reminded me of the small angry Scot of my childhood in Gladiators as he would often yell, Contestant 1 you will go on my first whistle, contestant two you will go on my 2nd whistle. Anyway, I digress, also we had no whistles.
After we attached to the mooring in St Vincent, we had a lovely lunch of couscous and fried veg; this was followed by a clean-up and then so with Marine Biology, where more things about the underwater world were learned, such as are fish really friends and not food? How do we know they can be trusted? Could Willy really have made that jump in Free Willy? And did the shark in Jaws really just want a hug and someone to talk to? All very topical and important questions.
After class, many of the shipmates took some time to study, relax and recuperate before a sunset walk to a fort at the top of a small rock spire just near our mooring, it was a long, arduous hike or so the shipmates made it sound. In reality, it was a 15 walk up some steps, and they were treated with some lovely views before returning to the boat for dinner.
After dinner, the shipmates completed their Deep Diver knowledge review for their upcoming deep dive in St. Lucia for the advanced open-water course. Now they are quickly preparing for bed, as we have an extra early 6 am wake up tomorrow for our volcano crater hike.
Goodnight and Godspeed.
Picture 1 – Marin finally learned how to tie her shoelaces (kind of)
Picture 2 – Cover photo for the next edition of Vogue
Picture 3 – A deep-sea blob-fish made it to the surface (its okay, we threw it back)
Picture 4 – A historic shot as the chief ensigner position is passed onto the new blood
Picture 5 – Doratron laughing as she serves an empty pan and salt for lunch
Picture 6 – More knot practice
Picture 7 – Cara practicing yoga
Picture 8 – A rock with a dinghy for scale for size
Picture 9 – Shipmates gathering where they think no one can see them