Location: The Bight, Norman Island
Hi, y’all! None of us can believe we’re on day nineteen, and we’ll be saying our final goodbyes in a couple of days. We have all felt like we were put into a time warp because of how insanely fast this session has flown by. Today, in my opinion, reflected so many different aspects of our adventure together. Starting off, we woke up from our big raft with the other boats, and we had a blast the night before, so some of us, me in particular, were very tired. Our amazing chefs, Sadie and Orly, cheffed up our world-famous pancakes, and by world-famous, I mean all the other boats wanted to eat them, but we will never see any food being wasted on Different Drummer. After breakfast, we headed over to de-raft and practiced our knot tying, which we all succeeded in; Evan, Celeste and I were already certified, so we took a well-needed nap. When I woke up, we were only 5 minutes away from the place we were going to anchor.
Once we got there, we all headed over to dive THE RONE, aka the coolest AQ dive (in my opinion). Claire guided us through the boat, and she pointed out the HUGE propeller that was now filled with a beautiful ecosystem of fish and algae. Once we got back to our boat, we made some delicious ramen, and Evan and I laid out on the boat and discussed our potential camp plans for next year. Then we finally got to go to my all-time favorite “hike” called Salt Island. I’m not exactly sure why I love this walk because there is rabbit poop every step, and it doesn’t exactly smell like roses, but it has always made me so happy and has been such a place of serenity and peace. We ran into another boat and walked back down to the beach with them while taking in the view. We took our final boat ocean shower, which we all agreed felt absolutely surreal. Then, we headed to the bite, which was our final destination for the day. I had a little nap and woke up to our whole boat yelling and chatting like we always do and realized that I would miss these small moments so much. Then it was dinner. We were all grossed out by the cheddar broccoli pasta, but we all ended up gobbling it up. Celeste and I spied on the other boats using binoculars, and everyone else was inside laughing and talking about whatever could come to their minds. We then got the briefing on the cards, which is when we all write goodbye cards to each other, which is essentially just a tear-jerker. As I was writing one of my cards, I looked over to see Sadie tearing up, which in return made me cry, too, so we’re all just a big, sappy mess. Claire is bribing us with making us brownies, so we will lock in to finish our cards, which has us all sat. This has been such a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, and I know everyone on my boat agrees that this will be one of the hardest goodbyes. I am so thankful for all our memories together and excited to make so many more! Sending love home