Location: Sommer's Beach, Tortola
While the past few days have been more laid back and flexible, today we had another rotation day followed by our second barbecue, which meant a lot of activity and excitement. We began our day with a breakfast of scrambled eggs and blueberry muffins made by Chloe and Lily, which was a delicious start to a full day. First on rotation day was zesting, and while most everyone chilled on Beso, Joey, Ben, and I went on a zesting adventure. Since our anchor spot is in a sort of cove surrounded by mountainous terrain, the wind was very choppy and shifty. Not great zesting weather. However, Joey stood on the front of the boat and did a “wind dance” to summon the wind, and it actually worked. The gusts got so strong that we had to pull some pro maneuvers to not crash into other boats.
After zesting was over, we dinghy-ed over to Mango Tango to do extreme water sports. Liam, Chloe, Joey, Lilli, and Elle got on the dinghy while the rest of us stayed on the boat to sunbathe and play cards. Joey was able to stand up on the wakeboard for a few seconds before wiping out, a very impressive feat for most of us. Elle wasn’t so lucky, however. As she was kneeboarding, the board came out from under her and hit her straight in the head. Casualties aside, it was a fun few hours. For lunch, we had mac and cheese, which was gone within minutes despite how much there was. Lillie put a ton of ketchup in her bowl, though, so of course, we had to make fun of her. We got behind schedule, so we couldn’t finish cleanup before going to our next activity: our second open water dive.
Unfortunately, today’s dive wasn’t as beautiful as the last one because the water was very murky, and we had to be cautious of an alarming number of jellyfish. The dive was pretty short, too, as we only focused on some skills like navigating with a compass underwater and emergency ascents. Still very fun, though; day by day, we get closer to being certified! After our final rotation—a short sail chat about mechanical aspects of the boat like the engines and bathrooms—we got dressed up (relatively) and headed to Sommers for our second barbecue! We rafted up with Mango Tango to hang out briefly and then headed on the dinghy to the beach. This one was much shorter than the last, as we were on a beach instead of a resort with no lights, so we couldn’t really continue the party after dark. Still, it was a nice occasion. The lack of tables made eating a bit difficult, but we had a fun time finding a spot on the rocks for us to eat. After mingling with other boats slightly and talking amongst ourselves mostly, we were ready to “go home,” we ended our evening tired but in high spirits.