Location: Sommer's Beach, Tortola
I don’t think our boat has ever been so quiet in the morning. Everyone woke up to breakfast and barely said a word into the first rotation of zesting and paddle boarding. Everyone chilled on Avizia for most of this rotation, leading into our next parts of the vessel. We learned all about the boat, from engines to black water to safety equipment. Katie S. especially enjoyed this part of the day, interested in everything to do with sailing. Another boat, BDV, was at the paddle board rotation on our boat during this time, so we ended up jumping in with them. We were immediately startled to find mini jellyfish, which felt like little bugs crawling all over us in the water.
Anna was definitely not a fan and escaped to a paddle board with her new BDV friends. During this time, our DMs, JT, Grace, and Luke A., did a deep dive, skill circuits, and DSD (discover scuba diving). We all came together to have a quick lunch of soup, leaving everyone overheating. Into the next rotation of waterskiing, Paige, Luke C., Sofia, and I got on board. Sofia and I waterskied while the others were there for the vibes. Sofia did so well, shredding the skis even with it only being her third time waterskiing before. Our mate, Max, showed us all up with his sick moves on the wakeboard. We moved on to scuba off the dive boat to find even more jellyfish. This time, though, there were the larger pink ones, which sting. Luke C. took his giant stride into the water and almost immediately encountered this firsthand. It was all good, and he went straight into joking about it. This definitely spooked Maya, and she was cautious for the whole rotation. All of the groups ended up diving to different depths, all being deeper than we had in the past. My group with Luke C. and our dive instructor, Ian, ended up going all the way to our max of 60 feet. It was amazing being able to see all of the life down there, especially swimming through a school of fish. Katie S. saw a stingray while diving, which she said was really cool to experience.
Luke A. lost a scuba race with Grace, even attempting to cheat by pulling on her fins. Once back to the boat, Ellie, Paige, Anna, Katie S., and I had a shave sesh on the transom and jumped in. Maya jumped in, too, to find the boat swinging away from her and having to swim all the way around. We got underway to go from Muskmelon to Sommer’s Beach for a barbecue. On the way, it started raining, and we all took some top-notch pics off the bow. It cleared up in time for our dinghy ride and wet entrance to meet at the beach with the rest of the session. Paige, Ellie, and Katie S. took a walk down the beach after eating, having a fun time talking together. Grace, JT, Luke C., Maya, and I played games with my football and other boats through the night.
We mostly played football, three flags up, and chaos tag, a new game for most of the group. We came back to Avizia, where we rafted with BDV for the night. We had a rave on Avizia’s deck before jumping in with the Tarpan to shower. We spent the rest of the night hanging out with BDV in our power tower. Spencer had a great time making a new friend on BDV from France, where they talked about the World Cup and the France national team. Anna was social, catching up with a girl who was on her flight to the BVI and speaking to nearly everyone from our neighbor boat. It was a great time speaking and getting to know everyone for hours. We then all went to bed for an important day tomorrow of getting our dive certs!