Location: Falmouth, Harbor
What better way to start the day following a beautiful purple and orange sunrise than an Oceanography exam!? I may have been the most enthusiastic in the room, but I think everyone, now that it’s completed, would agree that they’re happy to have finished it and be nearly through finals week! Next up was the International Crew exam. After 74 days of living crew training on board Oceanstar and a lot of review with Drew (some involving more buckets of water than others), there was a 100% pass rate, and there are 15 more official international crew members on the ocean! — congratulations everyone 🙂
Post-lunch was a split vibe between studying and preparation for the several remaining assignments and exams and extreme fun boom swing style. The boom swing was hoisted up to record heights, and everyone who missed the first round back in St. Lucia was able to jump in this time. Now I’ll turn it over to our guest writer of the day:
GUEST BLOG WRITER: KT!
Hey team! Today we started off with a really tough wake-up. At least for myself. I noticed the bags were gone from under my bunk, meaning Steph had set off to provision at her favorite grocery store. The morning was slow, but I was motivated by our skilled culinary chef Aidan who used his incredible skills to prepare our cereal bar. After a delicious breakfast of Apple Jacks and Honey bunches of Oats, we corralled into the saloon and got ready for our Oceanography Final Exam! After this, we took our IC exam, and I can happily say we are now all official crew members! Our brains were pretty burnt out after these exams, so we were happy to have an afternoon spent in the water. After lunch of pesto pasta and veggies, we cleaned up and had a PARTY!… A LOGBOOK PARTY! So there wasn’t any dance floor or fruit punch, but we gathered together to fill out our most recent dives in our log books. After the log book party, something weird happened. Drew and Heather went missing!!!!!! We immediately prepared for a rescue scenario.
Dani, Alexis, and I jumped in as snorkelers to find the missing divers. Other people got their dive gear on, ready to save them. We brought them to the surface and practiced our rescue skills. Thankfully, we passed! This means we are all CERTIFIED RESCUE DIVERS. I can definitely say we are stoked about that. We carried on with the day and made a boom swing! We hoisted the boom and set it up; then, everyone took turns using the boom as a giant rope swing. Ryan lost his watch along the way, but he and I were able to retrieve it. Later, the afternoon was spent studying for the last of the upcoming exams. Kate, Carli, and I spent some time on the bow talking about our love for our girl OStar while munching on Doritos. The trip is coming to an end, but we are so grateful for the last few days we have here together.
GUEST WRITER: Kate
Hey Team! I feel like you guys have already gotten a pretty good run down of our day. But let me tell ya, this morning was the type of morning where waking up was probably the most difficult thing I did all day. I am glad I did because today was a good day filled with good food and good fun. Took the OCE exam and the IC exam and had the final scenario for rescue. Not to mention the boom swing. It was a jam-packed day. The day ended with my last time in the gopher hole. It has been an honor to serve as gopher when it came up on the wheel. My time gophing will be cherished dearly, and it will be weird not to put my dishes away by sending them through a hole in the roof. I am looking forward to these next couple of days, and yeah, that’s kind of all I got for you guys today but stay tuned for my final appearance in the blog. Oh, oh almost forgot. Steph also had an eventful day today. Her day started out with a journey to the promised land, which may or may not has included off-roading and nuns. If you were wondering what the promised land is, welp, it’s a grocery store, and it is Steph’s favorite grocery store in the entire Caribbean and maybe even the world. That’s a direct quote. And now, if you’re wondering about the off-roading and nuns, I will provide no further explanation. All you need to know is that those two factors are very important for a successful visit to the promised land. Ok, that’s actually all now. See y’all in a few days for the final blog.
GUEST WRITER CARLI:
Hey team! Fancy seeing you here. I truly don’t have much to contribute. While today was another great one, mine was very similar to that of my other guest writers. HOWEVER, while Kate decided “not to mention the boom swing,” that is the exact thing I would like to mention. Last time we set up said, “boom swing” I was very wary and only attempted it once, and oh boy, it did not work in my favor. SO when I took a gander at today’s schedule and saw none other than THE BOOM SWING staring back at me, you can only imagine my terror. But I just wanted you all to know so you can rest easy tonight knowing that I faced my fears and got back on the boom swing. Despite the odds stacked against me, I had nothing but a graceful descent to the water from the swing.
Photo 1-3: boom swinging
Photo 4: Syd and Ashlyn after Syd’s very first boom swing
Photo 5: Date night on the bow sprit
Photo 6: Sunset