Location: St. Barth’s
Welcome, ladies and gents, to the epitome of pure luxury, home of the overpriced and basically France: St. Barths. We woke up this morning at around 7:30 and were greeted by some oatmeal and Shawn gobbling up the remaining brownies from movie night. We were then informed by our almighty overlord, Riley, that we were moving onto a dock in Gustavia, the designer capital of the island. While docking Hayes and Zoe hopped on the dock to assist in catching lines until total chaos broke out, first off we were misinformed by our glorious king Riley’s 3 year old memory of the Gustavia dockyard (he has actually never been here before), were he told us we would only have metal rings where in reality it was a normal cleat so we had to do a complete on the spot remodeling of our whole plan. That was not the only issue, as we were docking, there was about a 90-degree wind shift, so instead of us being blown towards the dock, we were being blown away. These two factors combined caused so much chaos that our supreme master Riley made the executive decision to come back with a completely new approach. This meant that Hayes and Zoe got stuck on the dock, but after all that, we made it onto the dock.
We then got ready for the day ahead of us with a brief from our great emperor Riley and Zoe the wise one, we then got ready for surfing!🌊🏄🏄♀️🏄♂️When we got there we divided up into two groups and in the first group it was Stella, Lauryl, Hayes, Shawn and I. Stella of course being from Hawaii was a pro and was really carving up the waves and said that the waves were small but I just think they weren’t up to her Hawaiian standards. The rest of us stuck with cold water, no water, or no waves at home got some pointers from the surfing instructors. In the second group were Giles, Mateo, Christina, and Nate the Great. Giles said it was the highlight of his day because he thought the waves were the perfect size for learning. Mateo got up on all the waves, though not always on his feet; he experimented with sitting down, on his knees, and on his back. Christina developed a method to fall off her board in the most comfortable way possible after being done with a wave. As for Nate, it was his first time surfing, and he took some time to practice his technique and got up on two waves!!!! After surfing it was shopping time, but for most of us it was looking time because it was EXPENSIVE I saw a scoop of ice cream for 28$ which is just ridiculous however for those who did find something for them they struggled buying it due to the immense french influence on the island, well everyone except for five language Mateo who had no trouble at all communication wise. Gustavia was a very cool town, and the best that the people who had been to France could describe it as was “tropical Paris” with thin, cobblestone streets and cool architecture, which made the vibes IMMACULATE. After shopping, it was BBQ time, where both the boats enjoyed a total of 6 METERS of pizza, followed up by some gelato. We then also received a briefing that due to heavy rains, wind, and possible swells, our time in St Barthes will be cut short as we embark back on our 20-hour passage to the BVI tomorrow. When we got back to the boats, everyone took the chance to socialize, and as for Hayes, he decided to temporarily adopt a black cat from the dock, and I can see him petting him as I write this. Overall, today was an awesome and unforgettable experience on St. Barth’s.
– Henry
P.S. Mom, I hope I wrote enough. Love you!
P.S. from Zoe, the editor: Henry failed to mention that he bought a baguette to get himself in the French mood and impressively finished it by the day’s end.