Location: Montserrat
Another day, sailing to another new country – just another day in life. This morning, we awoke anchored off of Nevis. It was a bit overcast and windy, but it just highlighted the fact that up until now, we have had gorgeous weather – pretty impressive for two straight weeks. After breakfast, we all got together for our first SLD (Student Leadership Development) class of the semester and talked about some of our goals for ourselves for the trip. We then got into passage prep to get ready for our day sail to Montserrat. We are all really starting to get the hang of things on board, and passage prep is going much more quickly than it did even a week ago. When we finally picked up the anchor with Caroline at the helm, we turned into the wind and quickly raised the mainsail, foresail, staysail, and a new one for the semester – the jib. We then broke up into our watch teams, as each group took the deck for 3 hours to the helm, trim sails, complete boat checks, and, in general, get our group where we needed to go. Watch team 3(my watch) did an awesome job, with Cathleen, Joaquin, and Yi, each taking the helm for an hour, steering us at a close haul towards our destination. Due to the wind, we had some more waves than our last trip, as well as a heel to the leeward side. It took a little while, but eventually, everyone figured out how to walk with a slight lean so that you actually are standing up straight, even if the boat isn’t. Nick also had two fishing lines out for most of the passage and caught several fish, although, unfortunately, none of them were deemed appropriate for dinner. Just after dinner, we arrived at our destination, the island of Montserrat. We had already learned a little bit about Montserrat in oceanography classes when we were talking about tectonic plates and the volcanic formation of the islands that we are visiting on this trip, and we are all excited for a tour of the island tomorrow and to learn more about the island’s explosive history.