Location: St Eustatius
As always with my days as skipper, I woke up just before 7:00 am to prepare the speaker and pick the right song to wake everyone up to. I headed down to the saloon to find a few people already awake, making coffee, sun screening up for the day, braiding hair, and the chefs busy in the galley making everyone blueberry muffins for breakfast. I played my usual song of choice (The Waitress Song, by Seth Sentry) to wake everyone else up and get those already awake, pumped for the day. While breakfast was being brought up on deck, a few of us went up to the bow of Ocean Star to slip our mooring so that we could get underway from Saba to Sint Eustatius (Locally known as Statia).
Once everyone had finished a leisurely breakfast and clean up, it was time for a knots class on deck with Nick. I’m knot sure how much was actually learned about knots but heard talk of a “Bunny coming out a hole, going round a tree and back in its hole,” lassoing a horse, and the infamous Dragon Bowline. Everyone also practiced coiling lines on pins, storing lines as gasket coils, and making off pins and cleats. This all happened as we made our way towards our next destination of, Statia, an island that is also in the Dutch Caribbean along with Saba and Sint Maarten. Towards the end of class, we arrived at the anchorage, so a team prepped for the anchor drop. This involves raising the port anchor from its cradle (Aubrey, Beau, and Sydney) and hanging off the side with someone standing by with a line in hand, ready to drop (Joelle) when the helmsman says so. Another person is ready on the brake to control how much chain we let out (Maddie).
After our bagel sandwiches and Cool Ranch Doritos for lunch, a few people went in for a quick swim before meeting up for some EFR (Emergency First Response) training. This included covering the theory behind CPR First Aid and then completing some practical skills on deck with myself and Meg. We covered how to do a scene assessment, the use of barriers (with lots of comments on the ketchup I was using for simulation blood), CPR solo and with another person helping, AED use and placement, choking, placing someone in the recover position, serious bleeding, shock, and Spinal injuries, with a mini scenario where the team had to remove an ‘unconscious’ Ava from a particularly difficult position to a clear section of deck for ‘extraction’.
From this point, chefs went to start preparing dinner, and others went for naps, backflips, and showers. Dinner was Alfredo pasta, salad, and mushrooms for some. And now, as I type this, those doing their Advanced Open Water course are exploring the underwater portion of Statia for their night adventure dive, meaning tomorrow will be their qualifying diving for the certification.
Thanks for stopping by. Safe diving and fair winds.
Ash