April 2, 2009

Just about everyone limped up on deck for their morning chores after their 15 mile hike yesterday to the Boiling Lake. Girls were exhausted and struggling with the labor of soles and bowls, brasso, and deck wash. Nobody was really in the best mood and certainly not at their best.

Around noon we took a surprise field trip over to Picton Castle, another tall ship that was anchored in the area. A few people on Spirit’s crew had previously sailed on Picton Castle, and our own Mr. Bailey sailed around the world on it from 2005-2006. We met the crew and had a private tour of the three masted barque. Many of the girls were impressed with the size of Picton Castle and were jealous of the noticeably larger bunks and fresh water showers on board.

The biggest event that happened April 2nd was the switching of watches. Everyone was eager to find out who was going to be their next watch officer, deckhand, and fellow students in their new watches. So when we arrived back to Spirit, we all mustered to find out. The new watches are as follows: A WATCH: Cathy, Ashley, Sara, Gwen and Marcella B WATCH: Kayla, Iris, Julia, Jasmine and Veronica C WATCH: Vicky, Celina, Briana and Ann.

After a quick final muster with our old watches, we immediately lined up for a pin chase with our new watches. A WATCH won the pin chase by one point (even though B WATCH had the smoothest pick up line for Matt, a deckhand, and therefore clearly should have won).

Shortly after the pin chase we departed from Dominica and set off for Nevis. People seemed to be slightly happier after parting and left some of the drama behind at Dominica. The weather predicted a few squalls on our way to Nevis, however we were able to avoid all of them and had a pretty fine day and a half of sailing.

Kayla Altobelli-Libercent