Location: Statia
Today we climbed the Ladder to The Bottom. It was a brutal, long, tiresome way up the side of the mountain. We struggled a bit, but it was so satisfying when we finally made it to the top of The Bottom! (For a bit of background, the Ladder is a long series of stairs up the side of the steep island of Saba – it used to be the only way to get up the island! The Bottom is the name of the town that is located, ironically, at the top of the Ladder). We walked to town, then everyone either hitched a ride or hiked up to a town called Windward. Ale and I caught a ride with a local, which is the way that everyone gets around on Saba – there aren’t really taxis around, and there are lots of students on the island without cars due to the medical school, so there is a common practice of people just catching rides with whoever is driving the same direction. We traveled up the side of the mountain to the town of Windward with the wind in our hair and the best view of the island and sea. Every house and building on the island had a red roof; the houses here are super clean and cute, showing their Dutch roots. We met up with the rest of the crew in Windward and had lunch onshore. It was quite tasty. We explored the town, walked through the neighborhood, and even the local graveyard, then headed to JoBeans! JoBean is a glass-blowing shop where the artist blows glass into exquisite creations of rt.
We got to watch her create a bead, and even a couple of the students had the opportunity to make their own glass beads. We did a little shopping after, and got some funny gifts for our upcoming Secret Santa, then hitchhiked back to the Ladder. After we all were back onboard Ocean Star, we began passage prep for our last night’s passage. We had dinner and then got on our way back to the BVIs. I tried to pull an all-nighter; it got pretty close but conked out around 4:30. But I woke up to see the sunrise and also saw three shooting stars! It was bittersweet. I’m gonna miss night passages with the fam. Eight days left; it’s flown by so quickly! We’re all just trying to live it up during our last week together on Ocean Star.