Location: English Harbor, Antigua
After an overnight passage, which included a beautiful sunrise, and dolphins swimming under the bow, we finally made it to the gorgeous island of Antigua. Once we got to Antigua, Captain Eric showed his impressive seamanship skills by performing a “stern to” docking, in which he docked our 88-foot schooner back end first. It’s the equivalent of parallel parking during a terrifying driving test. After docking, with our stern end tied off, bow to a mooring, and anchor down, we set off on doing a large Boat Appreciation (BA). We bleached the salon, foc’sle, and all surfaces scrubbed down the entire deck, and changed our sheets. Once the BA was done, we spent the afternoon exploring English Harbor. Crew members enjoyed delicious local cuisine, freshwater showers (a rare luxury for the crew of Ocean Star), and the sight of incredible boats such as the 200-foot sloop “Marabella V” and impressive private motor yacht “Imagine.” After getting back on board, we had an intense Oceanography class. After class, we had, for the first time in our trips history, our first of back-to-back nights out. An idea never even conceived until tonight. It was the grand opening party of a new restaurant about 8 feet from where we were docked. The night was tons of fun, ending with dancing away the night to a great band playing songs perfect for the occasion, fancy hors d’oeuvres, ladies in fancy cocktail dresses, and 16 horribly under-dressed college students.