Location: Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica
Hello, beautiful world,
Today was Wicked Fire. It was one of those days that is difficult to put into words and have other people understand without them also experiencing it. Being away from family during the beginning of the holiday season is challenging, especially since it was the first Thanksgiving (for those who celebrate it) away from home for most here, but today showed me that the shipmates and staff on O-Star are family now. We bicker, we don’t always clean up after ourselves, we make mistakes, and we have favorites, but we also lift each other up, dance on the deck, share an amazing experience together, and celebrate as a normal-ish family might do. I’ll do my best to explain the simple bliss that today was.
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My morning started at 4 when I was woken up for anchor watch with Maxime. We drank tea, didn’t talk too much and enjoyed a peaceful O-Star without the day-to-day hustle and bustle. After watch ended at 5, I started in the galley with Teddy to make cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. At home, it’s a tradition that I make the cranberry sauce, so it felt a little like home to make it today. Ted and I also cranked out two normal pumpkin pies, one dairy-free, and four muffin-sized gluten-free pies. With the cumulation of the chefs from the night before and us in the morning, Breakfast was a traditional and much enjoyed yogurt and granola to give the chefs an easy morning before the busy dinner.
At 8, those who were going diving were picked up from O-Star, full of building excitement for a fun dive in Dominica. We went on two FULL HOUR LONG dives in the morning and sat on the dive boat during our surface interval. Full-hour dives are rare on programs as most of the divers are beginners, so it was a new and AWESOME experience to have a group who had enough air. Beyond that, the diving was absolutely incredible! The water today was clean, per usual of the Caribbean and the underwater bathymetry was a whole other world. During our two dives, we swam through tunnels, arches, and in between large flat-walled boulders covered in a million different shades of lichen, sponges, coral, and other organisms. As Steffi put it, “I’m smiling so much underwater that my mask keeps filling up!”. We also saw some hella sick animals in our new underwater world. Teddy had the spot of the day after finding a SEAHORSE, about 6 inches long and bright orange, hiding by a sponge and some seagrass. Yes, I’ll say that again. Teddy found a SEAHORSE. We were all so excited. Once again, our masks filled up with water. I personally made lots of little underwater screams of excitement; seeing a seahorse has been my bucket list, and today I was able to check it off! We also saw a giant green-colored eel, at least six feet long, cleaning shrimp, barracuda, lobsters, terminal phase Spotted Drums, and a bunch of cool-looking corals + sponges.
During our surface interval and boat ride back to Ocean Star, there were many thoughts + conversations of the possibilities in the world of diving and just continuing to explore the world more in-depth, in general. I personally, and at least a few others, are thinking more and more that college might not be in our future, with the whole world to explore and so much that we want to do. But mom, I promise I’ll at least go for the spring semester since I’m already registered for classes.
Throughout the day, Hedrek taught Seamanship to a morning group and an afternoon group. We are honing in our nav master skills since our final IYT Nav Master exam is coming up. Teddy took a full practice exam (but secretly real) and absolutely crushed it – passing and now being completely done with Nav Master. Go, Fred!
So many good things, and I haven’t even touched on dinner. The official Thanksgiving chefs were Steph, Quinn. And Sophie, who was in the galley from just after lunch until 6 pm, but many chefs contributed throughout the last two days to cooking up a storm for Thanksgiving. Our dinner menu included turkey, Cornish game hens, Quinn’s special potato cheesy yummy thing, Stefis sweet potato + marshmallow amazing dish, stuffing, regular mashed potatoes, two giant pans of baked veggies, cranberry sauce, gravy, pumpkin bread, and for desserts, four kinds of pies, caramel for dipping other treats, whipped cream, and Sams chocolate + chex treats. We definitely used all the pots and pans in the galley, but had more than enough food – good thing lunch tomorrow is leftovers. While eating dessert, music and dancing began near the saloon companionway. Footloose is a common after-dinner / clean-up dance song involving stomping and in-sync movements. It was the biggest crowd to have done it this semester. Even I joined in. Today was one of my favorite days, and I love Ocean Star and Sam and Steph and Ash and Hedrek.
Image 1: Teddy checking on our pies
Image 2: Gluten-free mini pies:)
Image 3: Tate at breakfast before diving
Image 4: My favorite sailboat neighbor
Image 5: Ash pretending to spray Eulalie with the hose during clean up
Image 6: Another picture of Ted, since she’s awesome
Image 7: Hedrek teaching Nav Master
Image 8: Thanksgiving dinner up on deck
Image 9: Steph with her food
Image 10: Quinn biting the turkey, Steph looking mildly confused, and Tate cutting onions with goggles
Image 11: Stefi with fruit from our Island Tour
Image 12: Steph with turkey
Image 13: Maxime during clean up
Image 13: Smiling Ash
Image 14: Stefi raising the ensign
Image 15: Tate and Asta at dinner
Just a reminder, we saw a seahorse today:)