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Location: St. Eustatius

As any good day out at sea would begin, we started with breakfast and a side of MTE (sailing class). After class, armed with sandwiches, water, hiking shoes, and motivation, we hiked up the Quill, the island’s volcano. Upon reaching the top, the crew could decide to walk along the crater’s rim, hike down into the crater, or go back to enjoy a longer shore time in town. Ryan and I decided to walk down into the crater of the volcano. It was rather rocky, but it was very interesting to observe how some trees had managed to populate the volcanic soil on the inside of the crater.

After the hike, we started preparing thanksgiving dinner on board. We had scheduled turns in the galley to make it possible for different chef teams to cook the different parts of our copious dinner. One team made the stuffing; another was responsible for the meat (turkey is not very popular in the Caribbean, but the chicken did the trick). We also prepared pies, cakes, mashed potatoes, caramelized sweet potatoes, and vegetables. It was our own little organized chaos in the galley salon. But bit by bit, piece by piece, course by course, everything came into place, and we put together a pretty amazing thanksgiving dinner. Never before did we feel so much like a family. Also, the squeeze question of the day fell within the theme: What are you most thankful for? Most thoughts were for our actual families back at home and also for our fellow shipmates.
After dinner, we went back to shore for some more thanksgiving celebration and to say our goodbyes to Statia. Tomorrow we are sailing to Saba!