Location: Sommer's Beach, Tortola
The day started at the very pleasant hour of 3:00 in the morning because, being the little Rapscallions that we are, we were seeking a laugh and revenge. We pulled a prank on the other boats, everyone woke up at 3:00 am, except me. I was supposed to wake everyone up that was going, but I (that is Holden) have a smooth kola brain, as Mike would say, and can’t set an alarm on my wristwatch to save my life. So thankfully, while I slept in the fox hole, Pearl, Katy, Cam, Dawson, Kennedy, and Mike quietly drove through the water under the early morning fog in a dingy rounding up fenders (these inflatable buoys that we tie to the side of a boat when docking to protect a hull) which went smoothly except for a few boats that wised up and hid their fenders. The premise of the prank was that we would take every boat’s fenders (which each boat has three of) and leave them all on one boat, a little mono-hull called Glad 2 b here. When I pulled myself out of the fox hole, it was a little before everyone else woke up, who then had to cook breakfast half asleep while blasting music. We had some pretty good eggs and some breakfast muffins with pineapple, and then it was go time. We had a rotation day today, so Suki, Katy, and I set sail in the zests (zests are small little sailboats we get to sail around the fleet) Cam, Dawson, Jovian, and Andrew also zested around the boats and fleet while the rest of the boat relaxed, read, and sunbathed. Oh, and Will, the captain of Glad 2 b here, asked Mike why there were now 20 fenders hidden in his sails.
Andrew, Cam, and Dawson all water skied in the next rotation, and while knee boarding, Andrew hit his record-high rpm on the dingy. Everyone then scuba-dived, and Amaya did some sick handstands and summer salts in the water, and everyone generally admired the aquatic life while above ground. At 1 bar of pressure, Gavin found a giant inflatable flamingo. He proceeded to sit, relax, and walk around. We all drove around in the dingy until the next rotation, where everyone went to Glad 2 b here and did flips, dives, and tricks off the side of the boat into the water. Lilliana was able to finish her book and was generally killing time until the big beach BBQ tonight. At 6:30, we got dressed up and headed out to the beach.
On the beach, there was an awesome party. There was food, there was music, there was… well really all they had was music and food, the beach was pretty nice though Dawson and Cam strolled around, Lilliana, Kennedy, Katy, Pearl, and Amaya went in a pack to the other aside of the beach. Jovian, Andrew, and Gavin played beach football, and I hung around with older kids from other boats I knew. And let me tell you, this party went all through the night… The night being until 7:40 where we all had to leave, also they gave our boat all the trash from the party so we had to wait in the water for a new dingy to show up that wasn’t transporting 50 garbage bags. But the party was nice. It had a beautiful view of the sunset. A lot of people had fun and connected with other people from there or other boats, and the instructors gathered in circles and played frisbee, and it looked like they had fun.
All in all, that was pretty much the day or at least the nickels and dimes of it. I’ve just realized we’re halfway through, and the more I think, the more surreal that feels. To be honest, I’ve forgotten there is anything past this boat I’m on, and there’s a day where I’ll wake up not in the BVIs but in my bedroom without any of the 15 people I’ve met and none of Mike’s frozen oranges in the fridge.
But that’s all I have to say. If you’re a parent reading, I hope you I’ve provided a good view into what your kids are doing, and if you are one of the people on this boat looking back, hey, it’s me, Holden. I hope you have good memories of this trip, and if by some chance your one of the people on highlander who put fish in our toilets and all over the ground in our heads, I haven’t forgotten you, you may think your not in the game but you still are. Ol’ Holdens is coming for you, and he’s gonna get you back.