Oh, Bartholomew

Location: Gustavia, St. Barths

Ahh, full night’s sleep, quite refreshing. Yesterday was fun but today was relieving, down time came perfectly. We’ll be in St Barths for a couple days but no one minds, the harbors not the same as a uninhabited island but it is a nice area. There’s lots of shops, restaurants, beaches and fun, legal hitchhiking to do. All of us are taking full advantage of the shore showers, while at sea we often forget how much we love freshwater. We did a little exploring today, testing out this new French land, so far so good. Today wasn’t all play though, we still had some docking practice tied in with a little anchoring as well. If I do say so myself we did some awfully nice maneuvering, especially since some of the staff had the day off (we miss you Eric and Casey!), but that’s ok we’re only students but we do the job well done. After deliciousness (chocolate pancakes) prepared bright and early by of wonderful chef Katy P. we learned the in’s and out’s of GPS as well as mariners weather in MTE class. Most of the day though was spent onshore exploring, and studying for the marine biology exam. Some ventured to shell beach (go ahead and guess-it’s a beach made up completely of shells), which sounds like a good time I’m definitely checking that out tomorrow, as well as the other numerous paradise beaches nearby. Some of us heard something about some airplanes and hiked to the airport to check out this phenomenon ourselves. Crazy French have to land their planes the daredevil way. They lower down to within meters from a road atop a hill then dive down into a steep valley, landing before running off into the ocean. It’s quite a spectacular, couple of us found great amusement in it. I think we’ve just been on land for too long already though; airplanes landing should not be such an enjoyment. Thank-you once again chefs for a scrumptious meal. After dinner we completed our 3rd OCB exam and now it’s time for more sleep to prepare for some real exploring and hitchhiking tomorrow. According to Harvey; overall, it was a mighty fine day.