Photos from a walk around Lambertville and Geocaching on Baldpate Mountain.

Everything collapses under scrutiny. When we theorize about something we are attempting to locate a boundary that separates one thing from what it is not. The harder you push though, the more fuzzy the boundaries become. You see things you didn’t notice before, get more detail, or see things where you thought there were none. At the end of this perhaps the only claim you can make is “it is what it is.” This claim can mean different things at different levels of scrutiny. On one level, to pick out one thing, gold for instance, it may be enough to say “it’s shiny.” This will allow you to pick some gold out of a pile of dirt so long as that’s all you’re concerned with for the moment. Obviously this level of specificity is below that of most of our vernacular speech, because we can think of other shiny things, or gold that isn’t shiny, etc. Fools gold is an obvious counterexample. So we add more detail to allow us to deal with gold on a deeper level. A certain degree of malleability. Now we can tell the difference between gold and pyrite. At some point we get atomic number 79. That’s where science is now, but maybe we will discover that there is another thing with that atomic number, some division between different types of gold, or something. Which one does “gold” refer to? One? Both? It doesn’t matter, because in the end “gold” is just a word. It is functionally attached to a concept that has evolved over the course of history and will continue to evolve, but the designator itself is not connected to the actuality of the thing. We can always know, gold is gold, but, be we have to remember that “gold” is not that thing. Our usage of the word has to change according to what we know about the thing, and at a certain level of scrutiny, we will always be able to find a case in which the designation doesn’t quite hold. The best we can do is attempt to describe new situations accurately, and our language will adapt to accommodate the new information. That’s what has happened, and it will continue to happen. Metaphysics as a form of inquiry is really just the process of elucidating the epistemology behind our conscious interpretation of what is. What is has always been what it is, but our knowledge of it has morphed and changed, as has our knowledge about that knowledge. We can’t get too attached to words and concepts, but at the same time, we can’t really move about in the world without them. Theories about the relationships between words, concepts, and things, are themselves subject to the same concerns. Their value lies in their functionality, not their truth, and they are necessarily distinct from the world they describe. That they break down if pushed to their limits is to be expected.

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° Our first sight of Nevis, around midday

After doing a bit of “Boat Appreciation” (cleaning our asses off), we dinghied to shore to explore Charlestown.

° It was a very cool town. Not too touristy at all. We got ice cream, walked around, and watched a bit of the world cup at a little sports bar, before heading back to the boat.

° It was “Mexican Night” and I helped Chase and Madd Dog make a beastly awesome meal.

That night, we all headed to shore and landed on the beach in front of a little rasta bar called Chevy’s for our first night out. (° No pictures from the bar are mine)

The locals were pretty into karaoke, and they were nasty at it. This guy was drunk off his ass but he would hit every note of any 80s pop song he sang.

Our crew wasn’t so skilled. Eric and Casey did a squeaky/mumbled but very lively interpretation of “Staying Alive.”

I joined Madd Dog, Chase and Dave for “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” a song which proved to be pretty difficult. No one knew the verses at all.

° The next day, we hiked the Source Trail, a trail that leads up the volcanic Nevis Peak along a freshwater stream that supplies much of the island’s water.

Nevis is pretty poor, and on the way to the trail head we passed a lot of shanties and shacks.

The jungle was beautiful

° Looking up the mountain

At the top of the trail was a rusted ladder

° It was MAD rickety but it did its job and nobody died or fell off

The stream went further up the mountain, but this was as far as we could get

On the descent

A hermit crab

When we got down the mountain, we stopped at the lovely Golden Rock Inn. Tired and dirty from hiking, swimming in this beautiful pool was one of the most relaxing experiences of the trip.

We sat down for lunch on an outdoor terrace

Grilled local-caught fish on homemade bread. It was delicious.

Coffee and cardamom ice cream

Back in Charlestown, we hung out on this street corner for a while, trying to think of something to do with the little time we had left before we had to return to the ship.

After a while this man, Kent Huggins, came along. He was super nice and offered to show us some of the islands’ volcanic hot springs. He also sold us some amazing pineapples.

° The springs were pretty cool, and very hot.

° Nevis was an awesome island. I had a great time there and I was sad to leave, but excited for our next stop: Antigua

(Photos marked with ° were taken by other crew members)

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Of course, when I woke up I barely remembered the dream at all. But gradually, as I was getting ready I recalled thinking that thought, and remembered the feeling that went with it. Now that though has been bubbling up every now and then all day, and it’s very frustrating not to be able to put together any more of the dream, but at the same time it is comforting to recall the experience, however incompletely.

I found these cards very interesting. I immediately connected the first to my ongoing struggle to finish college and the difficulties I have with concentration and time management. I have a great desire to express myself (both academically at school, and otherwise – through music, photography, and other projects) but often find myself very unproductive, and have difficulty getting things done at all without approaching deadlines, and even then don’t always finish them on time. At school, this often results in me feeling quite overwhelmed and sometimes depressed.

The cards interestingly seem to reiterate the things that I know I need to change in my life. I need to avoid my habit of procrastinating, and be more assertive and self-assured. I’ve been meaning to take on new projects – like yoga, bass lessons, building a coffee table, etc. – and I need to just suck it up and go for it. The bit I found especially intriguing was the fact that the depression card was “the answer.” This, combined with the advice to seek the advice of elders also plays into a thought I have had about a possible action I could take. My grandmother is a Jungian analyst, and I have thought of asking her to refer me to another analyst for counseling. I have heard that counseling (and Jungian analysis in particular) can be a very fulfilling and illuminating experience, and I think it might be of great help to me, both pragmatically and spiritually. So, I think I am going to try and get rolling on some of the things I’ve been meaning to do, try to stay optimistic and productive, and I’ll shoot my grandma an email about an analyst.

After an awesome time in Saba, our trip was finally coming to a close, and it was time to return home to the BVIs. We arrived at about 8:00 am after a starry overnight passage from Saba.

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All hands on deck as we sailed in to Virgin Gorda. Everyone was pretty beat, but we had another busy day ahead of us.

Our first stop was Virgin Gorda, where we dropped anchor and swam to shore to see The Baths, a popular tourist site whee huge boulders litter a white sand beach, forming a complicated network of caverns and tunnels. (Because we swam to shore, most of us didn’t bring cameras, so this picture is from wikipedia)

° I spent most of the time ashore exploring the caverns with Laura Lee, trying to find “Devil’s Bay” (shown above).

° The baths were a lot of fun. Unfortunately they were really crowded at the time we were there (mostly with American tourists), but they were spectacular to see.

° After leaving Virgin Gorda we returned triumphantly to Great Harbour, Peter Island, where we would moor for the night.

° I was the head chef that night, and while I was making dinner underway, we ran into some unexpectedly large waves. Luckily I had just taken a boiling pot of rice off the stove and put it safely in the sink, but a huge amount of water splashed in through the galley hatch and soaked me, along with the salad I was working on. Somehow I still got dinner out on time. That night we completed a writing activity in which we each wrote a 4×5 index card for each of our other shipmates. It was a difficult but rewarding task, and it gave us the chance to meditate one the relationships we had formed over the past 18 days.

On the way back to Tortola the next morning, Kevin, Madd Dog and Chase practiced a song they wrote about the journey

° After just 19 days aboard Ocean Star, sixteen students who had (for the most part) never sailed before were able to bring her safely into port at Road Harbour, Tortola

° Once docked, we devoted a good half a day to “Boat Apprectiation:” cleaning, polishing, and shining everything on board to keep Ocean Star as beautiful and functional as the day we stepped on board.

° Talia and I were deemed the smallest and nimblest shipmates, so we were given the task of cleaning out the bilges in the engine room. It was one of the messiest things I’ve ever done, and it took almost an hour of soaking and scrubbing to get all the grease off of me when we were done. It was actually pretty fun though. (In the picture on the left, Talia is actually in the bilge, probably waist deep in seawater, diesel fuel, and engine oil)

Once the boat was sparkling, everyone showered and mustered on deck for the premier of “Sexy Exie” by Madd Dog and Kevin with Chase and Champ

The final squeeze – everyone’s last chance to share their thoughts about the experience. Kevin, the first mate, made some great points. He talked about how we should cherish the time we had aboard Ocean Star as a completely unique experience that would never happen again, but also challenged us not to let it be our last great experience.

Our awesome instructors: Eric, Julie, Kevin and Casey. Each brought a unique element to the learning experience, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to sail with them.

° That night we had an awesome meal at Pusser’s, a local restaurant and bar (and also rum producer). I had grilled fish with vegetables and some amazing key lime cheesecake.

° After our meal and a few drinks, we left Pusser’s for a slightly rowdier local bar just across the Harbour: The Jolly Roger Inn

° Madd Dog and I debuted our Sailin’ dance, featuring motions commonly performed on board the O-Star

While the rest of our shipmates flew out of Beef Island Airport in the BVIs, Dave, Chase, Champ, Hannah, the Binghams, and I had flights from St. Thomas. We caught a ferry early the next morning.

Chase, Kevin, Matt, and I all had an extra day to stay in St. Thomas, so we split a hotel room in Charlotte Amalie and hit the town. This was the view from our room. By this time, it was the 4th of July, and being that St. Thomas is a U.S. territory, we hoped we could find a raucous parade or celebration. We quickly found out, however, that all the 4th of July festivities are on St. John, which was another expensive taxi and ferry ride away. We still had a great time hanging out at a poolside bar at the resort across the bay (our hotel’s bar was lame), ordering Dominoes to our hotel room, and exploring the town.

Our hotel was within walking distance to the airport, so in the morning we rolled out of bead, headed to the terminal and said our final goodbyes. On the plane home, I took a moment to reflect, writing this on my ipod:

On the plane back now, having a coffee and some airplane cookies. I just read my cards from everyone and they were so nice. Everyone really seemed to apreciate me and had some really nice things to say about me being calm and helpful. Seamester was a great experience in every way and I’m so glad I did it. It was like the college experience of meeting and bonding with people plus sailing plus hiking plus going to sweet islands, and it was with a really kick ass group of people. It was a truly unique experience that as Kevin said will never happen ever again. I guess you could say that about almost anything, but it really applies here. That group will never sail that ship to those islands again. It’s a sad thought, but also a very intruiging and kind of comforting one. So much of the trip and pre trip for me was about taking advantage of possibility but not trying to force things, and the impermanence of the whole experience, as well as the wide range of things we had the chance to do, really hit that home. I am seriously sad to be leaving my new friends and the carribean behind, but I’m also happy to be moving on with some great experiences under my belt. [...] Sailing allows you to really appreciate the small pleasures of life. Things like showers and even padded seats can’t be taken for granted as easily on a boat as on land. Sailing forces you into a lifestyle that is very deliberate and very connected. You have to consider every detail, but also be able to handle change and flow with whatever you get. It’s a life that I could totally see myself living.

(Photos marked with ° were taken by other crew members)

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Saba was the Fifth stop on our Leeward Islands tour. It was easily the most bad-ass place we visited. Surrounded by a sheer rock face hundreds of feet high, covered in dense jungle, and with roads so steep you could barely stand up straight, it is an imposing place to say the least. It’s also the home of the Saba Triathlon, one of the most intense races I’ve ever heard of. Even so, Saba still has plenty of good Caribbean chill, and everybody there is super nice. It also has a very diverse local ecology, with lots of fruit trees and a wide variety of plants, birds and animals. All around, it was one of my favorite stops.

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We had a pretty quick five hour passage from Ile Fourche to Saba, our last day sail of the trip. We dropped anchor on the west side of the island, ate some dinner, and prepared for an epic day. The group would split into hikers – who would conquer Mt. Scenery – and divers – who would explore Diamond Rock. I chose the hike. This was my journal entry for that night:

Nice sail from St Barths over to Saba. This island looks super beast so far. I can’t wait to hike it tomorow. I’m a little nervous after hearing about how intense the hike is and from just looking st the island, but I know I can do it and I’m sure it will be lots of fun. I also had a good time just hanging with ppl at dinner and stuff. It’s too bad the trip is almost over. Four days to go, so crazy. I’ve learned so much about sailing though. Today I beasted the yahcht training test, so that’ll be something to put on the resume. I also kinda want to take one of those wilderness medical courses chase was talking about. That sounds fun and super useful. I just want to learn everything I can about how to live life. The sooner I can finish my philosophy major the better. I want to get out into the world and live man. Who needs classrooms and junk for 16 years. I like school, but everyone says, and I now know, that you can learn so much just by traveling and absorbing. I love being in different places. It’s so great! Travelling is definitely more possible than I thought. Ok bed.

In order to reach the island, we had to dinghy to shore and climb a huge rock staircase known as “the ladder.” This was once the only means of entry to island, before a harbor was built on the eastern side.
The beach was not sand, but beautiful round rocks. Beautiful, but very difficult to walk on.

Prior to the building of the Fort Bay Harbour, access to Saba was by way of this flight of steps up the cliffs of Ladder Bay. Ships would anchor offshore and all cargo had to be carried by foot p the nearly vertical stairway to the village of The Bottom. The stone masonry steps were the only way to get from the sea to the island villages for many years. Now hikers can descend the ladder to the water, enjoying magnificent scenery along the way. A former customs house two thirds of the way down is an excellent lookout point to enjoy the beautiful views of the sea and shore.

° We made our way up The Ladder…

And up The Ladder…

° Finally we reached the old customs house

° Now overgrown and covered in graffiti, it nonetheless provided a welcome resting spot.

° There was even an outhouse next door!
After climbing the rest of the stairs, we finally reached…

° The Bottom… Just one of the many awesome things about Saba: you have to climb thousands of steps just to reach the bottom. It was a really cool town: lots of Dutch colonial architecture, chickens running around, and friendly people. Fun Fact: Apparently Saba boasts the highest per-capita consumption of Heineken in the world.

Eric, Zane, Chris E. and I split off from the rest of the group and hiked from the bottom up a beautiful jungle trail toward Mt. Scenery
Another cool thing about Saba: It’s an island in the Carribean, but its highest point is higher than any in the Netherlands

The trail up Mt. Scenery was an all out Jungle. It was hot but the shade and humidity offered welcome relief from the sun.

° Even so, my back got sooooo sweaty.

My hiking companions: Captain Eric, Chris E. and Zane.
To reach the summit we had to slither up through the middle of this pile of rocks.


It was a great feeling to summit, even though it was so cloudy that we really couldn’t see anything. We were supposed to get certificates for successfully making the climb, but some jerk group of kids had just come through and cleaned out the park office.
The jungle mud really did a number on our shoes. Eric (in the middle) kept losing his flip flops in the muck.

After leaving the summit, we made our way to a secondary peak…

… the home of an abandoned radio tower
It reminded me of a scene from Jurassic Park, minus the velociraptors. We climbed up most of the way, but didn’t make it through the cloud cover. On a clear day we probably could’ve seen for hundreds of miles from the top.
After a lunch of Goldfish and peanut butter and jelly, we descended the other side of the mountain and arrived at the other major town in Saba: Windward Side. We stopped at a little grocery store and I bought the best ginger beer of my life. I don’t remember what kind it was, but the combination of me being totally exhausted and a cold, fizzy, ginger-clouded drink was simply amazing.
From Windward Side we hitched rides back to The Bottom.
Hitch-hiking is a pretty common practice on Saba, and Zane and I were able to score a ride in the back of an empty pickup

° These guys were considerably more cramped.

° The ride back to the Bottom was beautiful, but very quick. If Saba has speed limits, you’d never know from the way the locals drive.

° From The Bottom, we made our way back down the ladder, and back to Ocean Star.



Back on board, I wrote this entry in my journal:

I did it! I summited the highest mountain in the kingdom of holland! It was pretty hard for a while but one I got in the groove of it it was actually not bad at all. I definitely could be in better shape though. I just ate a wild mango that I brought back from he island and it was so good! A little stringy but mad juicy and great flavor. I saved the seed and I’m gonna try to brin it back to the us and plant some mango trees. As if I don’t already have enough plants haha. It’s ok though, I’d rather fill my house with plants as suivoniers than random stuff right! I hope the seeds sprout. Seba is a cool cool island. It’s so badass that you have to go up like 100000 stairs just to get to the bottom haha, and you can hitch hike anywhere. It was cool and I’d like to stay there and see some more stuff, but were leaving tonight for the BVIs. Last long sail of the trip dannnnngggggg.

(Unfortunately I was too afraid to try to get that seed through customs. It was a damn good mango though.)

(Photos marked with ° were taken by other crew members)

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° The water was clear and warm, and the waves were great, if a little small.

° We only had four boards for the group, but everyone got to catch at least a few waves.

°

After surfing we ate a picnic lunch of French cheeses, baguettes, and peanut butter & Jelly.

While lounging on the beach I wrote this journal entry on my ipod:

Chillin at a beach hotel on st barths right now and it’s super nice! People are speaking French all around and I kinda understand. I’d like to spend some more time here and learn more French. I hope one day Christie and I can hit up some islands together. That would be so fun. [...] I love travelling and being down here has made me love it even more. Just hanging out on new places and talking to people can be so interesting. I’ve met some rly cool people so far, like the Rastas at chevys, Kent huggins, the couple from lime an the coconut, Sean Paul, the old rasta dude at le select, the old French sailor. Just a bunch if interesting characters that I probably wouldn’t have run into or talked to of I hadn’t been on the move. It’s also been fun getting to know everybody on Seamester. They’re all rly cool and I hope we stay in touch and continue to hang out after it’s over. I have the weirdest tan right now. Calves and forearms mad tan, shoulders pretty tan, torso kinda pale, and thighs buttery and snow white. Hahahaha lol so funny hehe. I think I’ve really learned a lot on thus trip though. Lots of practical skills like knot tying and stuff and also confidence an stuff. Just doing things on my own on the way down and in the day before taught me a lot about managing stress and lettin life take it’s course. I was so worried about everything but all I had to do was chill out, do whatever was in my power to do, and things sorted themselves out nicely. And I had some stories to tell when it was all over. I had to waste a bunch if money on a new passport but it was worth it for the lessons I learned. Ok done writing for now, peace out.

The next afternoon we motored over to Ile Fourche, an uninhabited nearby island and dropped anchor for the night.

In the morning we dinghied to shore for a sunrise hike.

It was a very cool hike. The island was really rocky, with four or five different peaks each made up of slightly different sized/textured boulders.


° The group (minus a few) at sunrise

After watching the sun break the horizon with the group, a few of us decided to climb what looked like the tallest of the peaks (although it was hard to tell for sure).

Looking down at Ocean Star, almost at the peak.

Matt and Champ at the top watching the sunrise.

Zane chillin in a little cave.

(Photos marked with ° were taken by other crew members)

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I stole this idea from a friend’s blog… Anyway this is what I’ve been listening to recently.

Portico Quartet

This is a great jazz band from London, featuring the almighty hang. I discovered them through a random picture I found on flickr a couple years ago. It showed the band busking on the streets of Paris (something I think they do fairly regularly).  I was intrigued, and from there I found some videos and eventually downloaded their first album. Knee-Deep in the North Sea came out in 2007, and is a great album, as is Isla, their 2009 follow-up. Knee-Deep is more straight ahead modern jazz with a minimalist classical twist, while Isla builds their sound into is a meditative blend of jazz and classical elements that sounds almost psychedelic at times. Both are worth checking out for sure, especially if you like the hang.

Kid Cudi

Cudi’s Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009) has been one of my go-to albums for the past couple weeks. Sci-fi Stoner Trip/Hip-Hop. Every song is just so chill and cool. My favorites are “Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part I),” “Pursuit of Happiness” (which has an awesome video, below), and the last two tracks, “Hyyerr,” and “Up Up and Away (The Wake and Bake Song).”

Fleet Foxes

These guys just might be my new favorite band. I can’t even say what songs I like best because I love everything I’ve heard so far. Their 2008 self-titled full-length debut is amazing, and so is their EP, Sun Giant (also 2008). Their 2006 Fleet Foxes EP is good too, but I haven’t listened to that as much yet as the others. Apparently they have a new album in the works as well, and I can’t wait to get my hands on that.

This is a beautiful live music video of Fleet Foxes playing in Paris, first in a park and then in an abandoned building. The first song is “Sun Giant” from the album of the same name, and the second is “Blue Ridge Mountains” from Fleet Foxes.

DJ Shadow

Downloaded Endtroducing a few weeks ago and have really been getting into it. One of the first Trip-Hop albums, and still one of the best I’ve heard. A classic.

The fourth stop we made on our voyage was the French island of St. Barthélemy, or St. Barth’s. The island is an “overseas collectivity,” making it basically a part of France. As such it really felt like a little piece of Europe in the middle of the Carribean. It was easily the most expensive island we visited, due in part to a not-so-favorable dollar-euro exchange rate, but it was well worth it, as we all had a great time feasting on crêpes, going to bars, trying to speak french to drunk locals, surfing, and shopping for souvenirs.

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The passage to St. Barth from Antigua was relatively smooth, and as a result I was actually able to take some pictures. Here you can see the roof of the charthouse (what I’m sitting on), both masts and a lot of the rigging of Ocean Star, as well as our dinghies: Exie on the left, and Irving on the right.
Chris/Champ/Sweet-Cheeks at the helm. Everyone kept water bottles hooked to that thing in front of the compass.
We had some good wind so we put up the fisherman’s sail (the little one all the way up at the top of the foremast in the above left photo). At right: (Captain) Eric sheeting in the foresail while David takes up slack.
David, Chris, Chase, and Matt folding the “fish” up as we near our destination.
The port of Gustavia, St. Barthélemy
Ocean Star docked stern-to in Gustavia. Scooters were the main mode of transport there, and there were certainly no SUVs anywhere to be seen.
We had some free shore time so we took a walk and I took lots of pictures.
This is the main street just off the port. Near here was a store that sold us “International phone cards” for 3 euro… I advise you not to put too much trust in these if you go.



A view of the port from Fort Karl, a now ruined fort on the south side of town, near Shell Beach. You can see Ocean Star on the far shore, toward the left.
Looking down from Ft. Karl; Left: the stairs leading to the fort; Right: The Ocean
° French advertisements…
That night the whole crew trucked over to Le Select, a bar / restaurant (the cheapest food in town, though still pretty expensive) for a night out.

° For my first experience at a real “french restaurant,” it wasn’t very french at all. They served burgers, fries, and beer, and everyone understood English.
° I got a “fish burger,” which ended up being 3 fish sticks on a bun with lettuce, tomato and a lime wedge.
Madd Dog enjoying a Carib and a Cuban
° Le Select was a cool bar with a great vibe. There were a lot of locals there as well as travelers from various corners of the world.
° Needless to say, everyone had a great time.
° Diving instructor Casey and myself with one of the more interesting characters we met: a drunken French sailor who advised me always to “go with the wind.”
° Zane and Madd Dog with somebody’s dog
° The crew: Kevin, Eric, and Julie
° Watch Team One: Laura, Champ, Julie, Chase, Gretchen, Eric, and Me
° Dave, Chase, Hannah and Me with a mad cool local Rasta.

(Photos marked with ° were taken by other crew members)

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