Location: Galleon Beach, Antigua
Hi Mom, Dad, Friends and Family! These first three days on board Ocean Star have been filled with many firsts and lots of fun. I haven’t missed having my phone at all. Many of us had our first anchor watches last night, with each of us assigned an hour to be up on deck under the stars, monitoring the boat’s position and the wind speeds. Today began with a lovely double rainbow for those of us up early on deck before seven. Although we aren’t sailing today, as the skipper, I had the lovely task of waking everyone up in time for a delicious breakfast of DIY bagels. We had our first introduction to our oceanography class with Heather and our first introduction to leadership with Drew, leaving us all excited for our classes to officially start. Those of us who are not yet open water dive certified spent the morning watching our remaining three PADI scuba videos down in the saloon while the others who are already certified got to take a fun refresher dive and saw a few rays.
After a quick review, we took our four dive quizzes and will hopefully gear up to put what we’ve learned to use in the next few days. With our classes out of the way, we all had time to jump in for a much-needed swim, with some bravely testing out their flipping techniques. A storm nearby was taunting us, but Megan scared it away with her rain jacket in time for us to eat on deck and do the daily squeeze question before the raindrops and lightning caught up to us. Today’s squeeze question was…Why Seamester? What motivated you to do this experience? We all come from different backgrounds different countries, and even speak different languages, and yet we all have very similar passions that brought us together. Whether we saw an ad on Instagram, wanted to learn how to dive, sought to disconnect and meet people genuinely, or expand upon previous sailing experience, we all are extremely excited to be here and live in the moment, and I can’t wait to see what new things tomorrow will bring!
Hi Mom, Dad, Clark, Charlie, Grandmommy and Granddaddy! Hope all is well at home! I’m loving every minute and have already learned so much and met some amazing people. The stars are incredible out here.
P.S. I have already broken out the Towel Hoodie/Surf Poncho…someone else has one too! Thanks, Sheryl!