Location: West End, Tortola
Welcome to Ocean Star! In the past few weeks, we’ve moved the boat from Antigua to the British Virgin Islands, repainted the whole deck, stocked up on food and more food, and worked on many projects around the boat. But despite being shiny, clean, and going on a lovely sail, Ocean Star hasn’t felt quite right these last few weeks. The walls that usually hum with laughter have been quiet, and the cockpit has had elbow room. That all changed tonight!
Starting with Ethan and Spencer, everyone walked down the dock and onto their new home. The day was spent unpacking, exploring, and meeting students living on the catamaran that will be running alongside us. Dinner was a lovely pesto pasta and chicken Caesar salad cooked by Meg, and when it came up, we all packed into the cockpit with 15 new friends, comparing stories from home and reasons we came onboard. We discussed how exciting it would be to take our first breaths underwater and see all of the sails go up on Ocean Star. We wondered which island would be our favorite and how it would feel to sleep in a hammock under the stars. This will be my 6th trip with Seamester, so I can promise the students one thing – that all of these experiences will be cool. There will be stories to engage even unwilling listeners and fun facts for years to come. But when they look back on these 20 days and their time on Ocean Star, these events won’t be the first things that come to mind. Sure, it’ll be nights under the stars, but no one will take note of how brightly they shined, just how funny their conversation with their hammocking friends is. It won’t be the dives where we see the biggest sharks or coolest sea turtles, but the ones where someone masters blowing bubble rings and floats upside down. It’ll be dishie pit vs. deckie water wars, dancing in the rain, stubbing toes on D-rings, and laughing about it all. Because it’s the people that make the place. It’s the people that bring the memories to life. You all at home may not be as excited to hear stories of dishwashing conversations gone awry as you are to hear about dolphins jumping in the sunset, but those will be the first stories you hear and the ones that will immediately bring a smile to our faces while telling them. Twenty days doesn’t seem like a long time, but in my experience, it’s long enough to have a new place to call home and a new group to think of as family. So let’s get started!
After dinner, we learned what our clean-up jobs are and easily went through our first dishie pit and deckie team. After dinner, we finished check-ins, and everyone hung out on the deck or on the cat late into the night, talking and laughing.
NOTE – The students won’t have their phones for the first six days of the trip. They’re not ignoring your messages, I promise!
Meet the Staff!
Nick – Captain, Medic, Seamanship Instructor
Allie – Program Manager, First Mate, Medic
Ben – Marine Scientist, Dive Instructor
Meg – Marine Scientist, Dive Instructor, Medic