Location: Gustavia, St. Barthélemy
Our day began the same way most mornings do, with wake-ups at 07:00 and breakfast promptly at 07:30. Lucy and Katie, our chefs, made us a delicious french toast casserole. During cleanup, Peyton and I made sure to eat all the burnt bits nobody wanted. Wiggy, Steve, and Steph soon abandoned us to get provisions, propane, and clear out of Statia. Thankfully we had a lovely and super cool skipper to help the crew prepare Ocean Star for our passage to St. Barts and Ian M, our first mate (I’m skipper if you didn’t catch that), Eager to return to bed, the crew powered through passage prep and we were ready to set sail. Once the staff returned, we raised the anchor and hoisted the flying jib for a little bit of tacking practice as classics week was rapidly approaching. We hadn’t yet sailed with her flying jib up as it can be a bit tricky to control. After a bit of training, we lowered the flying jib and raised the mainsail, staysail, jib, then finished by raising the flying jib again. We turned our engine off and raised the foresail soon after to catch as much wind as possible. As our captain always says (every day without fail), it was a lovely day. We sailed out of the lee of Statia and were blessed by a yummy quesadilla lunch. I ate mine with leftover curry.
Once we finished cleaning up, we broke into watch teams, starting with my team from 13:00 until 15:00. To gain a little bit more speed. Ian asked for a few hands-on each sail to play with trim; I allowed it. Soon we were cruising towards St. Barts, and thanks to our handy first mate and the even handier flying jib, we were making 6.8 knots. For Ocean Star, heading upwind, that’s pretty darn fast. Two hours passed by quickly, and soon I was lying in a very heeled over bunk trying to get a quick nap in. At 17:00, my team returned on deck for our second watch and were pleased to discover it would be the final watch of the day as we were only 3 nm away from the island. Soon our sails were dropped, and with Wiggy on the helm, we navigated our way through a rather jam-packed anchorage to find ourselves the safest place to spend the night. After the anchor was dropped, lines were coiled, and sail covers bundled up the sails. Afterward, we sat down for some delicious spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Once dinner was cleaned up, we gathered for a marine biology lecture but instead were pleasantly surprised to watch an episode of Blue Planet – the deep. The only thing missing was the popcorn. As the crew prepared for bed and I avoided writing my blog on deck, a huge bang came ringing from a distance, followed by a flash of color filling the sky. I called down the companionway telling everyone there were fireworks being set off, congratulating their favorite skipper. Everyone came running, so; my reasoning must have been true. After the fireworks, everyone hurried off to bed to rest up for the unknown adventures of tomorrow.
Thanks for another beautiful day of sailing in the Caribbean.
Yours,
Devi Kavita Mimi Brauckmann