Location: Pigeon Island, Guadeloupe
Today was extraordinary, in my opinion. The morning started off at 6:55 AM when I ran down into the saloon to put on music and wake everyone up. But instead of sleepy shipmates, I found the chefs were already cooking, music jamming, and the rest of the crew already up and hangin’, waiting for a delicious breakfast of fresh baguettes to be served. Following breakfast, we commenced with passage prep and got the boat ready to move onwards with our journey north. When our beloved Ocean Star was ready to rock, we gathered all the shipmates into the cockpit and surprised them with the opportunity for their first student-led passage. It was up to them to get us from our little anchorage next to Pan de Sac in Les Saintes up the coast of Guadeloupe and safely to our destination anchorage near Pigeon Island. The passage went absolutely flawless as Ocean Star sped along on a beam reach with three sails up and quite a bit of breeze. We even reached speeds of almost ten knots! It was very cool to see how the crew came together and used each other’s strengths and specialties with regard to getting all the sails up, navigating, engineering, helming, and anchoring the boat. When we finally all sat down for a Mexican Fiesta for dinner this evening, everyone had a side of the well-deserved sense of accomplishment on their plates. Bravo crew! Now, seeing as we are anchored next to one of legendary Jacques Cousteau’s favorite Caribbean dive sites (see tomorrow’s blog as we are about to dive it in the AM!!), we thought we’d watch a Bill Murray comedy flick produced in his name, “Life Aquatic.” With that, I leave you all; I’m off to the Ocean Star movie theatre on deck- popcorn included!!