Location: Falmouth, Antigua
Another beautiful morning here on Ocean Star. I know this because I had a 5-6 AM watch; I was awoken by Topher, who told me we were most likely dragging, but his watch was over, so it was my problem to deal with. I decided that it was too scary to wake up Steve, so I made the executive decision that we weren’t dragging.
After wake up, I was engaged in a heated debate with some crewmates about whether Voldemort could kill Darth Vader. Isn’t that just ridiculous? Vader, a conqueror of an entire galaxy, versus Voldemort, a noseless, failed wizard that couldn’t even beat a few high-schoolers. They arguably have the same powers, except Voldemort has to say a spell and hold a stick to do anything. Imagine Voldemort winding up his little stick and opening up his mouth to say some spell when fighting the dark lord of the sith. He would just throw his lightsaber at him. Ash thinks that the Road Runner is the greatest super-villain of all time. He never loses, and he’s a cartoon, and cartoons can’t die. I think I should have set some parameters. Steve maintains that it’s all about perspective; he thinks that Ant-Man is the greatest villain even though he’s just not a villain.
The morning was free for most people except for the brave souls that wanted to retake the NavMaster exam. These brave souls were Keaton and Meg. After a lot of practice and complaining, I am proud to announce that they are both Nav Masters! We are officially done with the course. So excited to be able to put that on my resum. Although I just learned that it is only applicable in international waters. I’m not 100% positive what that means, but at least I can call myself a master of something other than the bathroom. Shout out to all the Head Master lovers @KatiePope!
Grady, you culinary king. It was Mr. Andrew’s last day being head chef. He made his classic beans and rice with sausage, and this time we were careful not to let Steve steal all of the sausages.
After lunch, we watched a diving documentary, or as Ash, our resident Aussie calls it, a “Dock-Oh.” It’s called Last Breath, and it’s about this saturation diver that got basically dropped to the bottom of the ocean. He was at around 90 meters when he separated from his tether because of a computer malfunction on the boat. He was left there to sink to the bottom. He was down there for 38 minutes in the pitch black, and he was without air for 32 of them. You might be thinking, “That’s a terrible way to die,” but get this, He lived! And he was totally fine after toocrazy twist ending. Nobody was expecting it. It was such a cool story, and on top of that, his name was Chris Lemons which is an incredible name.
We had our last Oceanography class this afternoon. All of the groups presented on their research that they had been conducting this semester. Here are some highlights that I got from this session: Johnny and his group told us that there are more fish on coral reefs than on sandy bottoms, Katie’s group found out the scientific name for Christmas tree worms, my group presented on why things get slimy when they are underwater, and Max and his group told us that we should not go around standing on coral reefs.
I almost forgot! Shout out to Addisen for free-diving to the bottom today to get the tongs that we dropped in the water last night.
After cleaning up dinner, all the girls left for a night dive, which means it’s boy’s night on the boat. We are already engaged in the hot topic of whether or not it is acceptable to sleep naked. On one side, we have Liam, who is strongly opposed; his main argument: He doesn’t want his butt all over his sheets. Julian believes that sleeping naked is the most comfortable way to sleep. I haven’t been convinced by either side yet; I guess I’ll have to try it out tonight!
Hi Mom! Hi Grandma!
Thanks, everyone, for putting up with the mess that is my blog writing! I’ve had fun being your skipper!
Pictures 1+2: Sunrise over English Harbour
Picture 3: Topher showing me a drumfish and telling me he drew it when obviously it’s a picture
Picture 4: Keaton and Meg enjoying some watermelon that they didn’t share
Picture 5: An all-powerful overlord with the ability to move things with his mind fighting a hairless birthday party magician that was quite literally killed by a baby