Location: Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
‘Ellooooo to all the loved ones out there! Let me begin by painting the present picture for you here on O Star. As I write the blog and the rest of the crew finish up their duties of the day, we are all trying to keep a level head while a ba-gillian bugs swarm around and flip-flop on deck (I have been watching this one particular bug go around in a figure eight for the last 10 minutes…) what a scene. Anywho, today was a lovely day filled with adventures, per usual. We began with some delicious lemon poppy seed muffins courtesy of our head chef Dani–breakfast was a sellout! After our tummies were full and clean-up jobs were completed, we had our last Leadership class of the trip, where we watched Master and Commander of the HMS Surprise; it was quite an action-packed film. After our cinematic experience down in the Saloon, we made our way to shore. We wandered around Nelson’s dockyard and grabbed some refreshing drinks and snacks to cool down. We then began our beach day adventure, starting with a detour to a fort where we hopped along the rock wall and leaped across cannon cut-outs. The beloved soccer ball was almost lost FOR-E-VER, but thankfully the thorn bush saved it from its impending death down the cliff side. We scampered our way up the goat trail until we finally reached the lovely sandy beach at the end; there were some minor scrapes and thorns in the feet, but no major accidents went down (disregarding KT’s slip-up on the flat surface..). What a delightful 30-45min treat the beach-ie beach was; ‘da bois’ were throwing the football around playing jackpot while others swam some laps, played in the wata, and ate some pre-packed sandwiches–with some extra sand added. We then walked across a sketchy broken dock and hopped in Exy to bring us back aboard O.Star. We showered off the sand and got ready for some “damn good” fried rice from the head chef herself and sous Mia and Ashlyn–it was a crowd favorite for sure. After an efficient clean-up, half the crew went night diving, this being our last dive of the program:( The squad in the second dingy ride over had to give Exy some words of encouragement when she spat out on us right as we began our motor over to the site. Our coaxing did the job, and we were on our merry way to explore the shallow dark depths of the reef. We had a laughing party on the surface before the dive as we watched Alexis tow Exy and Nick back to the line and try to tie a bowline–a knot he still has yet to learn, although it is day 76–after he let them float away…The moonlight was so bright during the dive that when the time came to cover our lights up, we could still see ripples and reflections (with a sprinkle of bioluminescence) in the water, thanks to the lovely lookin’ moon. While this crazy adventure was taking place, the other half had a more relaxed evening and watched a motivational yet heart-wrenching film called Racing Extinction (greatly recommend for a tear jolt and wake-up call). The day ended with some chocolate munchin’ and a restful night’s sleep. A day well spent, one might say.
And that’s all, folks!
Squid out
Photo 1: Syd and Charlie on the fort wall
Photo 2: Delicious breakfast
Photo 3-7: Exploring Nelson’s dockyard
Photo 8: Hiking up the goat path
Photo 9-11: Views from the fort
Photo 12: Sean from the top of the goat path
Photo 13-15: More fort views
Photo 16-18: Views from the goat path
Photo 19: Alexis holding Kebo’s hand as Mia tries to get a thorn out of his foot
Photo 20: Hiking
Photo 21: KT!
Photo 22: Flowery views
Photo 23: Beachie beach
Photo 24: Carli feeling blue
Photo 25: Sunset
Photo 26: Hammock stack
Photo 27: Dance party on the bow
Photo 28: Dinner!
Photo 29: The final dive!