Location: Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia
No one on this yacht expected to be awoken by the sounds of a didgeridoo, but I felt it was time, so I proceeded to wake them with a song by Australian artist Xavier Rudd and the song “To Let.” Filled with didgeridoo, native bird song, and some pretty sweet guitar, it slowly builds in energy to a vibrant finale. A superb way to start the day, this song was followed by a few other Australian songs. As these were playing, people started to rise and get teeth brushed or start to make coffee. In the galley, Zoe was already close to finishing a wonderful breakfast of blueberry and raisin oatmeal accompanied by a large bowl of tropical fruit and some cherries. As the salon was filled with songs by Seth Sentry, “the waitress song,” Thundermentals “Never say never” and Hilltop Hoods “I’m Good,” my way of sharing my love of music with the crew, there were conversations going that detailed the events from Watch throughout the night.
One story, in particular, stood out as being particularly hilarious, featuring our wonderful Julia as the star. Apparently, during her watch, it had begun to rain and then pour, so she made her way around the ship to close all the hatches. Once she got to the Fo’c’sle, though, she encountered a problem. The hatch wouldn’t stay shut whenever she pushed it down due to the pistons that hold it open. This is where Julia realized that she didn’t know how to close and keep closed the hatch. If she went to get help and a rain jacket (as I understand she was only in a hoody), the fo’c’sle would get very wet; if she stayed, it was Julia that was going to get very wet. Putting her crew above her own comfort, she stayed in place, holding the hatch closed whilst she got soaked in the rain. Once it was time for the next person start watch, she quickly ran down to wake Chief (aka Pearse), who came up on deck and placed the latch on the fo’c’sle door to hold it down (which Julia hadn’t seen) and continued about his watch as if nothing was amiss, including the thoroughly soaked Julia.
After breakfast and clean-up, the crew jumped into a long session of Seamanship with Calum, where they are focusing on the art and skill of navigating with Charts. A traditional technique that is still taught today due to its independence from modern technology. If your GPS goes down for any reason, you can still navigate via chart and compass. Plus, all vessels are required to have a least 2 methods of navigation. The focus of today’s class was Speed Made Good (SMG) which is your average speed between 2 points. With a short break in between, we moved on to the Leadership class, which was run by Luke. As this was the last chapter of the leadership book, the focus was on bringing together elements already covered and the mind, body, and soul of the leader. Where the motivation comes from, how to renew so that you don’t get burnt out and what makes one itch or keeps one going? To finish off this class, we watched a short video from the late philosopher Alan Watts about the question of “What do you desire?” focused on how to spend your life.
Zoe and Sous chefs Isabel and Kiara put out an incredible veggie salad with fried tofu. As a huge critic of tofu, I’m usually completely unimpressed, but Zoe genuinely dazzled me with this rendition, and I would for sure enjoy it any time in the future. Once everyone had eaten their fill, and clean-up was done, those that wanted to head to land for some shore time, snack buying, and wifi. As I opted to stay on board Ocean Star, I don’t know for sure what they got up to, but those that stayed spent the time working on Fish ID assignments and debating the effectiveness of different styles of laxatives. Those that went ashore, I can only surmise, had an equally as interesting time.
After our awesome veggie fried rice dinner, we had our squeeze question where everyone had to decide if the person on their left had an action figure. What would be the two accessories it would come with? We had a hilarious range of answers, including a bottle of maple syrup for Jodie, a pregnancy test for Riley (due to the clinic’s demand for a test when she had to go in for a sick stomach), and tweezers for Isa.
I also discovered through an ancient and mystical technique that the Captain, Steve, and I have a 91% compatibility rating. How about that for a fun fact. Anywho, on that note, I’ll leave with all these wonderful photos of awesome crew/family.