Location: Gustavia, St. Barths
After a night off from watch which means getting a full night of uninterrupted sleep, I was woken up at 7:30 for breakfast by Heather gently waking me up, followed by her placing my exam and fish ID quiz on my bed. We had a normal morning of breakfast cleanup, and then the class, which this morning was oceanography with Sam, where we continued learning about human impacts on the ocean today. We specifically learned about climate change and how we, as humans, are the cause but can also be the solution. After class, we met up on deck for a quick brief before hopping in the dingy and going to shore for some free time exploring Gustavia before meeting at the taxi stand to go to the beach for our surfing lesson. When we got to the beach, we were early, so we enjoyed some time hanging out, and some of us decided to go for a swim before sun screening up and getting a quick land lesson on the boards. Once we all knew how to pop up on the board on land, we picked up our boards and headed for the water, where we paddled out to a bouy while we waited for our turn to catch a wave. After a few tries, I finally was able to actually stand up on the board, which was super exciting! I was able to get up three times before our lesson was over, and we headed back to the beach while it was raining. Thankfully Ash had grabbed all of our bags while we were in the water and moved them from just on the beach to being covered by the surf shack. After the rain passed, we were able to dry off. We hopped back in the taxi and headed back to town for some more shore time before we had to get back for shuttles. When we got back to town, I spent some time just walking around exploring and shopping before running into Doron, Eva, and Jules at this fancy market that was next door to a very yummy and fancy bakery. I got a small thing of blueberries and one of the raspberries, and I will certainly say that those were some of the best blueberries I have ever had. Once back on board Clara, Katie, and I jumped into cooking dinner, which was grilled cheese on homemade bread and tomato soup. While we were in the galley, the rest of the crew was up on deck doing passage prep to get ready for our sail to Saba tomorrow. After passage prep was done, Heather got back with provisions, so the focus shifted to getting all of the cold things in the fridge before dinner. We finished dinner and are now finishing up with cleanup before going back to putting away provisions. After we are done with that, I need to get to work on the fourth and final set of my log book assignment before 11:00 so that after my anchor watch, I can go to bed.
P.S.
Hi Mom, Dad, and Nene!! I love and miss y’all so so much!!