Location: Statia
Hi, I am Aidan. I finally got to be skipper. Hi to my parents and sister and pets; I miss you all and hope you are doing wonderful. Another magnificent day aboard the lovely Miss Ocean Star herself. To start the day, I woke everyone up with a little Wham! Action (“wake me up before you go go,” to be specific). It was received pretty well, and we kept the jam sesh going until breakfast which was pancakes with some white chocolate which was really goodalso, shoutout to the staff for getting pastries like croissants and baguettes for breakfast as well. I think I ate about four croissants. They are the best thing ever. After breakfast, we prepared to sail to Statia. We got off the dock faster than the judgy French guys thought we would, so that was a plus. We also got the sails up in under 8 minutes which is a new record time for us. The voyage took around 6 hours, and our watch shifts were only 2 hours which was a nice change. For lunch, the chefs Q, Kat (better known as Dog), and Allistaire made some fantastic grilled cheese and tomato soup which we ate on passage. My team, watch team 2, was the crew on watch as we got close to Statia. We also took down the sails with the help of watch team 1 (thank you!) in record time. As we got close, Toby and I were tasked with standing on the bow and letting Smash know if we saw any crab pots, which would not go over well for the propeller if we had hit one. Fortunately, we did not hit one, and after getting close enough to shore, our watch team dropped the port anchor with the help of Steph and Q. After anchoring, our PFDs were quickly taken off, and we prepared for oceanography class.
Today we had a quiz for the first half of unit 2, and Steph also taught us about UNCLOS, which stands for United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. We also learned about coasts in general and the different types of ecosystems that develop on coasts, such as mangrove forests. Next up for us students were the seamanship class. I was in the second group, so I had a bit of time to spare, which I spent taking a much-needed shower with Lauren and Elling. In class, we learned about Course to Steer, which simply (not really) gives us the course to steer, taking into account a number of factors such as current and wind. Drew did a great job explaining it, which is good because we have a practice exam for our nav master course tomorrow. After class, I led Elling and Toby through a little stretching session which was much needed. It ended up being all of our appreciation for the day. Dinner was a really good tex mex casserole which was finished off quickly. As I am writing this, the rest of the crew is doing their clean-up duties. We then have a little pulse check and a chill rest of the night. The question of the day was if the person to your left was an aquatic organism, what would they be? Out.