Location: West End, Tortola
Hello to all!!! Today was a very exciting day as today we had two races. We woke up at a normal time, about 7:00. We ate one of the best meals we have at camp. It was truly astonishing to let me tell you, out of all the meals we have here at ActionQuest, this one is perfect. Oatmeal was the name of the game because I had to be at a skipper meeting at 7:45 before the race started. This super secret skipper meeting consisted of many topics, one of which was the race today. The instructors pointed out where we were going and when the race started, along with how we started. So with our main sheets up and everyone facing towards the wind, we were off at 9:15. This was more of a drag racing, so we needed to make sure our sails were perfect. We started in first, but another boat by the name of high on a breeze was close on our tail. They eventually got right next to us. We were side to side, neck to neck, port to starboard!! We sailed like that all the way to the finish!!! When finally we pulled through the little gusts of wind we had, we beat them by inches!!! With the first race over and us feeling great after being 1st place, we stopped where we started, West End. This place was somewhat nostalgic to all of us as it was the first night we had ever slept. We were able to walk around West End for the first time for a couple of hours. There were many places to eat and even a grocery store with two floors!! The most popular restaurant people went to was called Pussers, and people said it took over one and a half hours to get their food!!! I didn’t eat there, luckily, and instead got a breakfast bagel at a coffee place. One prank was going on when everyone was on the shore where a chicken was going from boat to boat. It was never on our boat but eventually got to the director Mike’s boat. We then started our second race. Everyone had a main role this time because it was a lot longer. The race took about 3 hours to sail, meaning all of us had to be on our game. Luke was on the helm, steering us the whole way. Avery and I controlled the traveler when we were tacking. Morgan and Amelie were on the gib, making sure it was perfect every time. Everyone else was on the high side while sailing, trying to lean the boat. We started the race in second place and held that position for a while until we eventually passed them after tons of tacking.
While in first place, we were closely followed until we hit some big waves, and our paddle boards almost flew out!! Meaning we had to go and retrieve them and put them below deck for a while. We lost a lot of time doing that, and the boat on our tail passed us. We eventually caught up to them and passed them again!! We had music roaring through our speakers, making sure everyone in the BVI knew who we were. We eventually were on our final tack, our two main competitors behind us. We had waited patiently to tack and went farther than we thought we should and ended up winning because of it. The other two boats behind us had to do two more tacks in order to get through the finish line. We are now anchored and waiting to do a sail chat. I wanted to say goodnight to all, and I can’t wait to see all the people I care about back home.
—Ari