Location: Ile Fourche, St. Barths
This morning, Ocean Star’s crew was awakened by me with an ill attempt at a song to wake everyone up. It went something like this: “Good Morning, Good Morning. We’re hiking Mars this morning. “All I got from the crew, still in zombie mode, was a few grunts and moans just before 5 am. We all got ashore on the island of Ile Fourche at 5:30 and began our short hike to the top in time to catch the sunrise on the windward side of the island. Ile Fourche is uninhabited, and nothing grows there because of the lack of a freshwater source on the island, hence the nickname “Mars.” We were all at the top by 6 am, only to find the sunrise obscured by some distant clouds. That did not matter to us, though. The view was still gorgeous. After soaking up the scenery for a while, we made our way down, got back aboard the boat, had a quick breakfast, and prepared to move onto the dock in St Barths. We picked up the anchor and headed back to Gustavia, where we went starboard-side to the dock, and OCE followed after we were securely docked. The crew was able to have some shore time that afternoon in beautiful St. Barths harbor before dinner, and an OCE midterm capped off the evening after cleanup.