Location: Gorda Sound, Virgin Gorda
The closing of a semester brings term papers, class presentations, and final exams. The shipmates spent today taking two exams in Basic Seamanship and turning in a research project paper due in Oceanography. However, unlike everyone at home completing finals week on campus, the shipmates could be found studying on warm, white sandy beaches instead of dark, cold libraries. When they needed to release tension, they just headed to the clear tropical waters for a swim instead of running on an endless treadmill. Study breaks consisted of swaying in a hammock or racing across the water on a windsurfer. As the day closed, our dinner conversation was spent reminiscing about the early weeks of the semester, which brought on lots of laughter and foretold of happy memories to come when we look back on the 80 days we spent aboard the place we called home, Ocean Star.