Location: Guadeloupe
There was something about today that I couldn’t put my finger on. It wasn’t the sunshine, it wasn’t the cool breeze, it wasn’t the typical smiling faces from the wonderful staff and crew, and it surely wasn’t the fresh French baguettes. Today was perfect in every sort of way. The Ocean Star crew had a quick sail from Les Saints to the west side of Guadeloupe near Pigeon Island, Jacques Cousteau’s favorite dive spot in the Caribbean. He is one of the first underwater pioneers who also created the first underwater breathing apparatus. We passed a beautiful sailing yacht named Sea Cloud while leaving Les Saints, and then underway, we passed a nice lighthouse – I think it was the first I’ve seen on this trip. Ocean Star sailed on a nice beam, reaching partially downwind, rocking to and fro. It was the most pleasant sail of our journey thus far. Most of the crew and even the captain said this was one of their favorite sails, and I would have to agree with them! Today was the first day using the preventer, applied to the main and foresails so they wouldn’t accidentally jibe on us when sailing mainly downwind. Did you know some race teams have two skippers? One for downwind sailing and one for upwind sailing? They are two completely different techniques of sailing, and we were excited to finally be sailing downwind. After arriving at our anchorage off Pigeon Island, we had our shower time and then an amazing cookout of homemade cheeseburgers to wrap up our day. Some of the divers went out for a night dive tonight while the rest of us stayed on board and completed our knowledge reviews for our advanced certification dive tomorrow night. We also had our first free night in a while, so it was nice to unwind and watch movies on deck. A great day packed with fun activities and great meals prepared by our chef team. Today was, for sure, a 10 out of 10!