Location: West End, Tortola
Waking up on the boat with AC was definitely a blessing, aside from the first ever night we spent there. After cooking a huge stack of pancakes to the point we had extras and were feeling generous enough to share with the other counselors from other boats, we had a quick clean up with fresh water till the boat was squeaky clean. I feel like we did an amazing job in such a short amount of time because the staff promised they would give us phone time if we finished pretty fast, and that’s exactly what we did. We got our phones for a while, checked up on the family, and got to listen to ACTUAL GOOD MUSIC (ahem, sorry, Gordon). Maddie finally got her flip flops back that were being held hostage on another boat called Aloha. I believe this was when things took a turn: Emma, Darby, and Calvin had already booked flights and were going to leave early when we discovered all three of them were officially canceled, and there were no flights leaving anytime soon because the airport was closed till further notice because of our dear friend Ernesto (that’s the name of the storm btw). That’s when we all had to sit down for a quick debrief about what the plan of the day was going to be. Jake sat us all down for some good news and told us we could get some shore time before we left. Where, you might ask? THE VILLAS. Yep, we were all going to a huge villa to take shelter from the storm. This particular villa is supposed to fit the people from our boat, including staff (not Jake, though), and another boat, which was Good Times. With three bedrooms, a pool, and a huge, beautiful villa, we were DEFINITELY going to have a huge slumber party. Bad news though, we had to part ways with Darby.
To be very honest, we all miss him a lot, and I feel like parting ways early took away from the sentimental goodbye experience, but we all know we’re definitely keeping in contact. He’s always been the life of the party and puts a smile on everyone’s face no matter what. After saying our goodbyes, we split into two separate taxis. The first one had Maddie, Ruby, Jules, Kieran Lauren, and Emma L. The second one had me, Teddy, Calvin, Gabriel, and Alivia, but our taxi was so chill and talked about anything and everything with us during our 45-minute ride to the villa, which is called Hawksbill, btw. We finally arrived with around 30 people ready to explore this ten-million-dollar mansion. All the girls were going to share one of the bedrooms, and the guys were all going to share another one, while the staff took the third. And that’s where the fun began. Music turned all the way up, everyone putting on swimsuits and jumping in the pool, it was absolutely crazy. We had so much fun. Cooking dinner all together and having a horror movie night was insane. We got to bake desserts and cakes together and snacks while watching the movie. I feel like we didn’t really worry about the storm much the whole time; we all kept making fun of how it was not going to be that bad, but boy, were we definitely wrong. The winds started getting really bad at night, with the rain pouring so hard it soaked everything outside. We all sat down together for late-night conversations, and that’s probably my favorite part of the day because that’s when you really get to know the people around you and understand them on a deeper level. After that, it was time to go to bed, where Kieran, Lauren, Emma L, and Ruby slept on the comfiest bed. Maddie and I found a blackout room under construction that had AC and a dry floor, so we took our pillows and built our own set of beds on the floor, which were surprisingly comfy for the night, and Alivia built her own bed on the floor of the girl’s bedroom. Calvin and Gabriel shared the boy’s bed while Jules slept on the floor with his own pillows, and Teddy got his own sleep mattress, and that was it for the night :).