Location: Mountain Point, Virgin Gorda
Good evening, loyal readers! Today, we had another chaotic yet spectacular day. Arden woke us up very kindly, and we were all very excited to start the day. We woke up to our laundry being wonderfully sent off, which is a miracle considering some of us definitely needed it…. Carson, our food safety certified shipmate, and Rachel made tasteful breakfast burritos. Arden also surprised us with delicious blueberry muffins, which are all of our favorite things to eat here. Quickly after breakfast, we got ready to take our scuba final exam. We studied very hard despite being sleepy this morning. And guess what?! We all passed!!! I am very proud of all of us for making it through our lessons, and we are grateful to Tyler for preparing us well. We celebrated our success by making Turks Heads. Surprisingly enough, we were not the best at it. Arden ended up kindly doing all of mine, and Garrett worked hard to teach us. Molly and Alyssa’s creativity shined as they were able to make the bracelet entirely by themselves. Freddy tried his hardest and ended up with a unique knot around his ankle! Our Turks heads are a symbol of our sailing skills and will hopefully stay with us forever. We had a super yummy ramen lunch made by the wonderful Garret, and all of us gobbled it up.
Next, we headed off to the dive boat to go on another amazing journey under the sea and continue our certifications. Since the whole group finished our confined water section, we got to explore up to a whole thirty feet deep. Claire and Ella saw a Lionfish, a huge dream of Claire! Jordan did backflips underwater. Greta did fabulous figuring out how to equalize her ears underwater and had a great conversation with Jordan while waiting for the air tanks. Tucker worked hard on mastering the RDP table and was a master at his scuba facts. Freddy also made lots of friends with his fellow divers and was a social butterfly.
Brig was playful in the water and looked at lots of fish. Cathrine took a wonderful nap and caught up on her sleep in the net. Then, Rachel free-dove to the bottom of the ocean like a champ with no scuba gear and touched the bottom! When we got home, Arden had our lovely summer thanksgiving dinner prepared for us. We had stuffing, “turkey,” mashed potatoes, cranberries, gravy, stuffing, and more. Claire shared her delicious idea of mixing the cranberries and “turkey” for a perfect combination. For our nightly squeeze, the question was what animal would the person next to you be, and we all enjoyed sharing the silly animals we thought each other would be.
After dinner, we had a fun dishypitt with music, singing, and dancing all enjoyed some time to ourselves. Tucker ran into the water to get a ball and rescued our paddle game. Alyssa also spent time reading her book during her free time. We ended off our night with an engaging sail chat from Arden, and she is doing very well in preparing us for our sailing exam and upcoming sail days. We learned about the proper ways of encountering other boats, parts of the boat, sailing directions, and much more. Arden is a wonderful teacher, and we are all so lucky to have her teaching us in a hands-on and entertaining way. Then, Catherine, Ella, and I had a nice chat, talking about each other’s lives at home and getting to know each other even more. Kaleigh is our favorite visitor and she has come over to spend the night with us and get to know our ship. We spent another day today in Mountain Point which has been one of my favorite places to see the beautiful stars at night and bioluminescence in the water. My favorite part of the day was watching the sunset while having our nightly ocean shower and listening to music with all my favorite people. I learned a lot today about different fishies and ocean life. The animals are so so cute! We are officially halfway through our trip, and it has been the best ten days ever. I know the next ten will be even better! We have grown to be a very tight-knit group, and we all love spending time with each other and laughing all day long. Arden, Garrett, and Tyler take very good care of us and have made us the best boat in the fleet! Sending tons of love from the best place ever.
Lots of love, Jordan