Location: Cane Garden Bay, Tortola
Hello, parental units and others reading this blog. It’s me, Amelia, again — surprise!!! I know my turn as skipper came a little too quickly this time around; unfortunately, that is due to our friend Sasha departing today :(. Today we woke up at our normal 7:00 am and had breakfast — oatmeal and pineapple. Then, we started our rotation day, which wasn’t a normal one; it was super chaotic (hence the blog name). How chaos days work is that two boats are rafted together; in today’s case, that was Harbor House Out (aka Out House) and Oryx. The entire dive side is on those two boats, except for one or two who were out diving. On the rafted boats, there were all the normal rotation day activities: zesting, paddleboards, water sports, swimming, boom swing (which Aaron threw some sick backflips off of), and my personal favorite: tanning on the boat. Grayson enjoyed some paddleboarding during that time with a friend from another boat; everyone else just chilled on the raft. We were there for like three hours, and then we went diving. For most of us, we just had to complete our fourth and final dive for PADI certification; one group had to do three or four. The dive was super cool, we had to do one or two skills, and then we got to go over a sand highway where we saw a lot of super awesome fish, including this huuuuugeeee tarpon. An hour later and one or two SISA attempts later, the whole boat became officially PADI scuba open-water certified! (You got ur money’s worth 😉 )We then came back for lunch, chicken and cheese quesadillas. They were GAS. Thanks to the coolest, funniest, and most amazing person ever, Marge. After lunch, we took hippicleanse showers, which were a bit of a struggle as they were all fresh water with limited water. I came out with a full head of shampoo still in… After that, we started to go underway to our next location, more sail training! It began with Paige, Bailey, Grayson, and me raising the main sail, a true arm workout. Aleda and Teddy helped spot. Emily handled some of the winches. Aaron, Max, and Grayson also got to steer the helm. Bella manned the main sheet line. We then took a break and left it to Riley and Max to be on watch while we had a sail chat with Marg. We finally reached our destination, Cane Garden. We docked first to refuel and get some more water. Stella beautifully handled the helm to put us on the dock. After our recharge, we pulled back out and pulled up to a mooring ball. We saw a huge sea turtle in the water, and it was so cool. Stella picked the mooring ball up, and Grayson and I attached it to the boat, executing perfect cleat hitches (knot practice paying off!). We then had dinner prepared by Bella and Emily: garlic bread and pesto pasta, delish. Now we are all cleaning and watching the sunset. Max is heading over to advanced sail chat, and the rest of us are planning on making some brownies. Tomorrow we have an early wake-up; I, for one, am planning a very early bedtime. That’s all for today. I cannot believe there are only 6 days left. Until the next time!!!