Location: St. Eustatius
We awoke to green scrambled eggs, fruit cake, and Gatorade in celebration of St. Patty’s Day. Then, we headed to shore for our hike to the crater along the Quill trail. It was a nice, leisurely hike, first through Statia’s suburbs and then through a shady forest trail. We saw lots of big hermit crabs, black racer snakes (harmless), and lizards. Casey, Marc, and Gio decided to race their hermit crabs. Gio’s won with flying colors. We arrived at the top around 9:30 am. We then split up and headed in groups, exploring different trails. Allison, Jenny, and I hiked up to the Panorama Viewpoint, which wasn’t very panoramic. Then we headed back downtown, met up with everyone, and ate Chinese food. Afterward, we got delicious ice cream and shopped at the grocery store. Casey, Allison, and I went to the Fort, took pictures, and then caught up with everyone at the dive shop, buying t-shirts. We were picked up at 2:30 pm and spent the rest of the day doing our own tasks, like boat work, laundry, studying, or practicing chart navigation. We had corned beef stew with freshly baked bread for dinner and an oceanography quiz afterward. I really enjoyed Statia and thought the old Dutch cobblestone part of town was really neat.