Location: St. Lucia
Today, I woke everyone up extra early at 6:30 with the song Sail into the Sun by Gentlemen Hall and rallied the troops to get on deck and get the boat ready to sail. Efficiency is strictly and enthusiastically enforced around here (mainly by Drew, our first mate and leadership instructor, for those who don’t know). Instead of raising the port and starboard anchors one before the other, we attempted a double anchor raise. Why? Because two is better than one!…Two flakers, two whackers, two anchors. Double Trouble. We said goodbye to our favorite spot, the private Cliff-tree Bay in St.Vincent (not its actual name), and motored towards St.Lucia while eating breakfast. During clean-up, we got a VIP Pirates of the Caribbean tour (thanks to Captain Freddie) and got to see the cove and movie set from one of the movies. Rock arch ring a bell?
As we continued along the coast of St.Vincent, we could make out huge black channels running down the mountain valleys and into the water where the volcano magma must have flowed during their most recent eruption, possibly in 2019. Now, on to everyone’s favorite part of the passage…raising the sails. With a moderate amount of wind, we put up the main, foresail, and staysail and are starting to get the hang of student-led sail raises. Underway, we had a leadership class with Drew and had a moral and ethics discussion about the iconic railroad track scenario. You are a train operator. A train is on a track headed towards 100 people, but you could switch the track to another track that only has 50 people. What do you do? Now, what if those people are your family? As we came to find out, the question gets more difficult the more you think about it. Just before lunch, we sailed into a little squall and got gently rained on, which was the perfect excuse to see everyone’s awesome rain jackets. The rain continued into lunch, and we adapted with a served food below eat on deck in the rain kind of deal. Pasta is wet anyway, right?
The afternoon consisted of Heather doing an Oceanography lecture on convection, conduction, and radiation (solar radiation and thermoclines, to be exact). We finished just in time to pop back on deck to see us heading towards the majestic Pitons of St.Lucia. We arrived at the mooring ball around 3:00 p.m. and put the boat to bed, covering all the sails and coiling lines and un-ratcheting the dinghies. After a long, cloudy yet hot day of sailing, swimming was on everyone’s mind, and we all immediately jumped in for a swim and boat shower. The water is a deep blue color, and we are currently moored in approx. One hundred fifty ft. deep water thanks to the incredible cliff faces beside us, which continues below the surface. We all had some time to check in with family and friends this evening. We came back together for a delicious dinner by chefs Guigo, Lucas, and Amelia before ending the day with the squeeze question, “If you could live in any Disney/Pixar film world, which one would it be and why?”. Toy Story, Moana, Cars, Little Mermaid, Nemo, and Wreck-it-Ralph were popular choices. Thanks for following along. Now, onto studying for our exams and midterms coming up in the next few days.
Shoutout to my Mom, Dad, Clark, Charlie, friends and family! Miss you all! I hope you enjoy all my pictures from today (and yesterday).