Location: Mountain Point, Virgin Gorda
Hi! I’m Aria, and I’m from St. Paul, Minnesota. Today we got to sleep in till 8:30, which was much appreciated after we started a prank war late last night. The winning prank so far was putting pepper up someone’s nose while they were sleeping. Sylvia, Beth, and Tait all got up bright and early to start the long sail from Anegada to Mt. Point. Amelia and Dylan set up the classic yet delicious cereal breakfast. After a filling breakfast we conducted an investigation to find out who dumped half a bottle of balsamic vinegar on the kitchen counter at 5 am, but the mystery currently remains unsolved. We quickly rushed over to the dive boat to take our recreational dive planner final and scuba quizzes. We then took the dinghy back to Odyssey for a delicious grilled cheese sandwich that Tait kindly cooked for us. We then got ready to dive and took Sumo back to the dive boat, where we prepared for our first open water dive, 30 feet!!!!! Amelia, Rangeley, and I were all a little nervous, but once we got in the water, fear was replaced by excitement. We did two dives today. On the first, we practiced partially filling and clearing our masks and surface skills, like taking our kits off and putting them back on in the water. On the first dive, we also swam around the boat and saw lots of coral and many types of fish. Brie sadly got stung by some fire coral but pushed through and finished the dive like a champ. After a quick surface break, we started our second dive, which consisted of more mask skills and helping your buddy when they run out of air. After completing our dives, we took our final scuba exams, which was so relieving to be done with. We came back to Odyssey feeling very accomplished, took showers, and started cooking dinner. Tonight was Mexican night which was delicious and definitely a group favorite. After dinner, we went up to the cockpit for a squeeze. The question of the day was ‘what would you do with your life if money didn’t matter.” We all cleaned up during the beautiful sunset—definitely, the best I’ve seen on the trip so far. Jack, Yony, Brie, Taylor, Hanna, Carlos, and Beth had a competition to see who could tie knots quickest. Also, today is Taylor’s 16th birthday!!!!!! We are now patiently waiting for a lighter from another boat so we can make a birthday cake to celebrate. While we wait, Brie, Dylan, Carlos, Rangeley, and I are slapping each other with leftover tortillas from dinner to see who spits water out first. Later tonight, we have another sail chat with Tait and are going over our scuba finals with Beth. Happy b-day, Taylor! Miss you, Mom, Dad, Lilla, and Burgle!!!