Location: Bequia, Grenadines
Dear readers,
Hello all! My name’s Holly. My morning started out earlier than everyone else’s, a nice 5 AM due to hour-long anchor watches. I was not alone for long as our captain Steve required all hands on deck to move to Bequia at 6:30 AM. I woke everyone up with some nice George Ezra “Budapest,” and apparently that went down pretty okay. Breakfast was made and served by head chef of the day, Lolo, presenting a full tray of chocolate chip-banana nut muffins. I love some sugar in the mornings!
We then began some race training for later on in the trip, and that required so much turning around (aka tacking and jibing) that a few of us (read: me and a few others AT LEAST) got very confused on where we were actually trying to go. We got all three boom sails up the main, foresail, and staysail, and we put up our jib and flying jib as well. First time with all five sails up! Kenz and Kasey took a nice shower with the spray that came up over the bow. I like to think their only regret wasn’t bringing the soap they actually needed to shower. We also practiced a man overboard drill under sail, with the dive buoy again acting like the man. We had to circle around twice as the first rescue attempt was accidentally pushed too far with the recovery pole.
After lunch was Leadership chapter seven, where Rob led his chapter.
Did I mention we saw a whale today? We did, and various staff and students began absolutely losing their minds over such an event. It was after lunch, and I have perched about 10 feet away from the helm where Steve had absolutely no idea of what was going on, and Amanda started grabbing his arm saying “Oh my god” repeatedly, which he says caused him some freak out before she finally sputtered out the word “Whale!”
Finally, around 4 PM, we dropped anchor here in Bequia and began a BA (boat appreciation in case you haven’t been keeping up with these blog entries), and apparently, we didn’t finish before dinner, so while I write this, we have to finish that up with a final floor scrub. Ocean Star outshines any boat in this anchorage to me.
Tonight’s Squeeze question (led by yours truly as one of the many jobs the skipper has within a day) was “what is your lucky number” to which many people were confused about because, apparently, having a lucky number isn’t as common as one would think. We made it around the group, though, so I consider that a win.
That’s it for the crew today. If Josh is reading this, I love you, and I’ll talk to you when I can. If my family is reading this, I love you (especially Blair).
Til next time,
Holly
(Pictures, from left to right [hopefully])
1- Panoramic view underway to Bequia
2- Hailey, tying the mainsail cover on
3- Cap’n Steve and Kasey (Steve didn’t let me post just him, so Kasey jumped in)
4- Taking down the sails
5- My 5:50 AM view from a hammock
6- Rob, undoing a sail tie
7- Gus taking up slack on the peak sheet for the foresail
8- Learning to put up the flying jib for the first time!