Stuck as a rat with the cockroaches

We’ve arrived in Belize! The United Kingdom with its former gigantic empire had conquered our destination, which was previously known as British Honduras, for more than a century.

Even though the country has claimed its independence decades ago, the aftermath of UK’s well-established governance is evidently still impacting Belizeans today. Glance at the coins rattling in any pocket belonging to a member of either portside or midship and you’ll understand too: Queen Elizabeth II. While they were out spending their Belize dollar on inexpensive fruits of all kinds Starboard had the pleasure of doing maintenance onboard. I’m not bitter. Not even slightly.

Olivia, Xia and I had galley-duty all day, meaning the three of us were inside the warm kitchen helping our chefs. Communication is key for galley rats to finish their assignments as quickly and effective as possible. Besides following orders, the main assignments of a galley rat are doing the dishes, setting the table and cleaning. Lately, we’ve had an epidemic of cockroaches onboard. The outbreak started in small scale in the galley and have expanded and they’ve been found in both the cabins and our lounge. Dozens of these crawling little bastards have been successfully thrown overboard today :)

During our coffee break the entire Starboard jumped into the 26 degrees warm water to cool of the heat before it was time to get back to work again. When our shift had ended we gathered on deck, drank coffee and eagerly watched for the rare green flash that sometimes occur right before sunrise or directly at sunset. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any luck seeing it today, but we still enjoyed the sunset with each other’s company. It’ll be exciting to see what Belize has to offer for us tomorrow.

Starboard,

David Törnered