Location: Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Hello, world!
Today was another glorious day – we just lounged around and took naps. Just kidding. We would never.
We started the day off with some delicious, though wet, eggs and potatoes – St. Lucia really seems to have a way of making it rain right at mealtimes. Like literally, starts as soon as all of the food is up on deck and stops as soon as we finish clean up. Fear not though, we all have rain jackets. And Ash, our most particular crew member who also happens to hate getting wet, keeps wearing my poncho : ). So rain schmain – we’re fine!
After clean-up, we rolled right into a delightful seamanship class. We learned about your classic dead reckons and 3 point fix (some may know this as three bearing fix – Brits, what can I tell you). Hedrek reports that everyone got it, first try.
Then we got off the dock – by now, we are pros, and it was quite a smooth exit. First, you ease and throw the aft leading spring, the forward leading spring, quickly followed by the bowline, and then the stern. Easy peasy! Steve (some know him as Steen – he’s featured in the photos if you need some visual clarification) was kind enough to throw our lines – well, really, he got one of his crew to throw our lines (depending on how closely you follow this blog, you may recognize the name Steve/Steen- he was the old Captain of Ocean Star and is now in St. Lucia on another boat, on the same dock as us – I think he’s following me… He says I’m his best colleague, so I’m not surprised). Those that weren’t on lines were roving fenders, aka moving big squishy bumpers around. Should we need some cushion between our sturdy Ocean Star and the dock (we didn’t)? We’re now anchored out in Rodney Bay, and the view is delightful. Though the dock has its perks, it’s quite nice to be back on anchor, able to jump in the ocean and feel that sea breeze. Also, the view is stunning.
The afternoon was filled with Oceanography Literature Review presentations. We learned so much and had at least one laugh. I, the Oceanography instructor, was quite impressed and really enjoyed listening to them. Especially when people started speaking really fast because they were worried they were going over the time limit (which, they will soon learn, is no biggie).
Next up, provisions!!!!! Our resident provisioner and hero, Stephanie Ainsley Topal, arrived with all of our food for the next six days. Special shout out to her, as provisioning is no easy task. And we love food. We had a top-notch team putting provisions away, and in the middle of it all, everyone took a quick break for our favorite surprise – ICE CREAM!!! Honestly, watching people walk over, see the ice cream, open their eyes wide, then run and get a spoon, and then run back and all flock to our four tiny little pints felt like watching a BBC episode of Blue Planet. David Attenborough would have really made the moment.
After all that fun, we had a scrumptious dinner of stir fry (and rain – I told you). The squeeze question was about a piece of advice that you really resonate with or would like to give to your younger self. So I will leave you with this one, again from our dear Stephanie Ainsley Topal (I believe she stole it from a former shipmate): When there’s rain, look for rainbows, and when it’s dark, look for stars.
Twinkle twinkle, and goodnight.
Photo 1: Lucy (and Logan very small in the background trying to drop the anchor)
Photo 2: Sophie giving a beautiful presentation on jellyfish blooms
Photo 3: The human we all know and love – Steen.
Photo 4: Tate loves food!!! We all do
Photo 5: Iced Cream flavored like fish food – what could be better
Photo 6: The Mountain participating in her decongestion ceremony (casual)
Photo 7: Some dry laundry
Photo 8: He’s a lifeguard
Photo 9: Sophie driving us nowhere fast – we didn’t give her any directions…