Location: Mountain Point, Virgin Gorda
We started the day early, already underway before wake-up time at 7. We had a very controversial breakfast of oatmeal after picking up a mooring ball at The Baths. Everyone sunscreened up to prevent being “sunkissed,” and we headed over to the beach part of The Baths on a dingy. On the way, we were told of the history behind The Baths and how it is named, that being, it was where slaves were washed before being sold in America. We trekked, sloshed, and climbed through the rocks while Lucy, Maya, and Paloma vlogged on their GoPros. Megan, Paloma, Jasper, Mason, Sean, and Ron (“Will”) climbed up higher rocks for the view while the rest continued to the cliff-jumping rock. Parker, Granola Will, and I had fun flipping off the edge a few times. We hung around for a few hours, finding ourselves back at the beach a little later. The whole boat reconvened, talking in a circle. A little fish found its way into the center, staying and coming back, regardless of how many times it should have been scared away. Ron named the fish Gerald, which stuck and has now become the spirit animal (along with Sean’s boat rock, Dwayne) of the boat. Parker kept jumping to “spearfish” Gerald, which was very much not appreciated by the Gerald supporters. We all returned to Forever, for Now, to take a quick ocean shower before our first freshwater showers while underway. This was greatly enjoyed. However, the boat water ended up running out right as I stepped in. It was very tragic.
We docked at Spanish Town, which means… FIRST SHORE TIME!! This, may I add, is very exciting for a group of people who have been on the water for five days straight. We all ate some delicious Mexican food, grabbed some ice cream, and did some shopping. Paloma helped us in Spanish at the fruit stand while she, Reese, Megan, and I had some fire coconuts that we drank and ate. We stopped at Mr. Nice Guy to buy the iconic dulamimi pjs, but we were disappointed to find out that they no longer sold them. This, too, was very tragic. However, Ron and Sean were able to buy some pretty fire glasses, becoming the best dressed on board (approaching Kyler’s level of swag).
We all headed back to the boat to get back underway to sail/motor to Mountain Point. Parker and I were on the helm and lines. Maya, Lucy, and Paloma had a failed attempt to lighten their hair with lemon while the rest worked on bookwork or rested. We picked up a mooring ball near the far point and set up to snorkel the surrounding area in preparation for our first-night dive. We tried to find notable reef to help with navigation, however mostly ended up just messing around. Cara showed us a swim-through from the ocean, under the wall in the mountainside, into a little cove. It looked just like the moon pool from H2O. We saw a few squid and tons of fish. Reese, Parker, and I also attemped to explore a little cave with a dive light, however, bailed out. When back on the boat, we set up our gear for the night dive while it was still light out.
Dinner was some delectable stroganoff by Paloma and Reese. Everyone chilled out after a very long day and had some fun throwing the scraps into the water and watching the yellow-tail snappers come up to eat them. We then headed up to the bow for a dive briefing and gear review for our first night dive! WOOWOOOO! We buddied up and took our giant stride off of the stern just as the sun had passed the horizon. We descended with only the goals of some night underwater navigation and just having a fun dive. This dive was later called the collective best dive of the trip so far. We were able to see a sleeping sea turtle in the reef, some massive tarpon, sea stars, and jellyfish, and some people even saw sea bunnies and lobster. We resurfaced to finish the night off with a quick pitch black ocean shower and a squeeze question of what animal the person to your right would be. It was a great day for Forever for Now, and everyone was definitely ready for bed!