Location: St. Barths
Happy Thanksgiving from St. Barths. It’s a double holiday here on Ocean Star, as today is also Allie K’s 19th birthday! The day started at 4 am with a team of people blowing up balloons and sneaking around to decorate the entire saloon for Allie’s birthday before wakeups. Thank you to Allie’s mom for an incredibly exciting morning opening her care package to find birthday glasses, whistles, a piata, and just about every party favor you can think of. We had a special breakfast of French croissants (including chocolate croissants) and brie cheese from a local bakery, which was extra delicious after our busy morning decorating. Since it is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated by most of us here, we had no class and instead spent the morning watching a still educational movie on the life of dive pioneer and ocean explorer Jacque Cousteau. While we watched the movie, Selin and I decorated Allie’s birthday cakes (chocolate raspberry) while everyone else showed off their cookie-icing abilities, with jellyfish, turtles, fish, and sailboats being popular designs. Lunch was a Thanksgiving feast with ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and apple crisps on the menu. Shoutout to Heather and Megan for slaving away in the kitchen all morning to make that possible. Stuffed with all the yummy food, most of us even had no room for any dessert. After tackling the massive quantity of dishes that filtered through the salty pit, we got ready and loaded the dinghies for an exciting afternoon of surfing.
In the taxi on our way to the beach, we drove past the sole airport on St. Barths and marveled at the lack of runway, which seemed to be no more than four football fields in length. For many, it was their first time surfing, and despite slight difficulty paddling out, we all got a taste of the thrill that comes with riding a good wave. Conditions were choppy with a side of pouring rain, but we all had a blast nonetheless! No doubt we will be a little sore tomorrow. A double rainbow even made an appearance midway through our surf session. While waiting for the return taxi, a friendly orange cat came up to say hello and further fueled the conversation that Ocean Star needs a boat pet. We got a quick shore time for an hour to shower and take around town, including a stop at the pharmacy and marine store. For dinner, we ate on the patio of a lovely restaurant called Lisoletta and enjoyed pizza, salad, and drinks to celebrate Allie’s birthday. Are you pro bubbly water or pro still water? If you ask for regular water here, they will bring you a bottle of San Pellegrino bubbly water. Back on the boat, we broke out the glowsticks (thanks again to Allie K’s mom), dug into a spread of the three desserts from today (cookies, chocolate raspberry cake, and apple crisp), and sat on the deck looking out across the water at an incredible surprise firework show. Thank you to all of the families and people that made this trip possible for us…we have a lot to be thankful for!
Stay tuned tomorrow as we depart St. Barths and head to Saba for more adventures.
Special shoutout to my family! Happy Thanksgiving! Wish I could be there. Play a lot of games for me.