Location: Sidney's, Jost van Dyke
Word of the day: Mountainous
“In this world we are given two gifts: the ability to love and the ability to ask questions.” — Mary Oliver
Today was a day of perseverance and community. The day was long, hard, fulfilling, and joyful. I-Grace-am your skipper once again and am here to recount our adventures. We woke up early in the morning to a rushed breakfast of cereal before preparing for a long hike. We gathered our money, put on sunscreen (most of us), filled our water bottles, grabbed our shoes, and hopped in a dinghy. We were also given our phones for the duration of shore time, both as a safety measure and for catching up with family. When we arrived on shore, Ada, Kellan, Elin, Margo, Chloe, and I gave our water bottles to George, who was courteous enough to carry them for us in his backpack: you da man, George. We listened to Mike as he briefed us on the schedule and told us not to get paraphernalia during our free time after the hike. It was then time to turn and face Sage Mountain with nothing but cereal and dread in our stomachs. The promise of banana smoothies at the top drove us forward.
The hardest part of the hike was the beginning. I have roller-skated almost every day of my life for 9 years; I have strong legs, but I did not think I could make it up the first leg of that mountain. After resting for a few minutes, the rest of our boat kept moving, but Sam offered to walk along with me! We hiked the rest of the way up together, chatting the whole time. If it wasn’t obvious, Sam is an awesome friend. I was definitely slow whenever there were steep sections. Eventually, after a steep climb that I did not think I had in me, we caught sight of the banana smoothie shack! We made it! They were so worth it. I could have turned back, but it wasn’t the top. Sam went off to visit other people, and I made my way through an actual trail until I reached a clearing. I was the 48th person to sign the book they had waiting at the top. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a view; all I could see were trees. I made some new friends from Eole and Hope as we went to the market and ate lunch. When we arrived back on our boats, it was 1:30, and it was time to head to the beach! We sailed to another island for a sandcastle competition (except “castle” meant “literally anything”). The first thing we did was bury Kellan. She was transformed into a starfish with sunglasses. While we were creating something hilarious, I felt like doing something creative as well, so off to the side, I built an octopus. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before I could put much detail into it. When the judges came by to rank all the “sandcastles,” we told the story of how Kellan was thrown into the ocean during a man overboard drill, sank to the bottom of the ocean, turned into a starfish, and fell in love with an octopus. Tragically, they were thrown on shore by the waves and suffocated, unable to reach the other. Our creation ranked third on the leaderboards! Not two seconds after the announcement of the winners, we had to swim to the dinghies and take ocean showers as fast as we could. The tides were receding, and if we did not move, we might not be able to make it to the dock of our next location. Annika was told to “drive the boat like you stole it and beach it if you have to.” We made it. It was then time for more shopping and the barbecue! We headed to the clothing store just off the docks as soon as possible to grab one of their famous “sail naked” shirts. I got a dress. Afterwards, we realized we had to wait an hour before dinner, and Bella wanted to be there 15 minutes early to be at the front of the line. The food was delicious: my favorite barbecue food by far. At one point, Kellan laughed so hard she fell back in her chair and ended up taking George down with her. We danced a little bit, and then I ended up sitting with Molly, Jacob, George, and Elin as they talked with Molly’s brother. We weren’t allowed on the boats again until 10:00, so I eventually headed to where the music was not so loud and ended up talking with the people I had lunch with (Emily, Matilda, Stela, and Grayson). We talked until bedtime, and it was very fun. Needless to say, we all slept great. Thanks, everyone, for reading!