Location: Road Harbor, Tortola
Today started bright and early for me at 4:30 am due to pouring rain. The rain soaked my hammock, and therefore, I could no longer sleep in it, which meant that I would have to find another place to sleep. Unfortunately, the rain caused everywhere outside to be wet, so I had to find a place inside. I could’ve just gone into my cabin and slept, but inside, I decided that a great place to sleep would be the galley counter. I honestly slept pretty well. Even though multiple people were disrupted during the night, we got the luxury of sleeping in until eight, which was nice since a lot of us were up late talking. Once everyone eventually got up, we had a delicious breakfast of eggs and pancakes (thanks, Maren). We had a lazy and relaxing morning before we set off for Road Town. This said lazy and relaxing morning would end on the motor over. As we were pulling out of GHP, a huge rainstorm came in. A group of us went inside while the rest stayed outside and enjoyed their time playing in the rain outside. The waves were rough, and a few of us were feeling the seasickness coming on.
Everyone was doing their own thing: Sariah putting on makeup for land, Garrison and Megan doing paperwork, Maren and Claire trying to nap, Aidan on aux, and Julia and me talking, until all of a sudden, we got hit by a big wave and all the cabinets fly open. There was a moment of chaos with water bottles flying all over the place and Garrison yelling, “40-40!!” I tried to get up to secure the olive oil from going everywhere when, all of a sudden, the microwave went flying. Garrison was no longer yelling “40-40” but “Get the microwave! Microwave!” All of us were trying to get up and hold on to things, but the waves had another idea. We all just fall on top of each other and laugh. We finally secured the microwave and closed the drawers and cabinets.
Once things started to calm down a little bit, we were all just laughing about the situation and going back to what we were doing. This was a mistake. Quickly after we let our guard down, the microwave went flying again. I was then put on permanent microwave duty. After this, Garrison needed a Redbull, but since it was so rough and he was doing paperwork, Julia offered to be his personal cup holder, which was hilarious. Once we finally pulled into Road Town we were all very thankful to finally be there. Little did we know what we were in for. We got to a restaurant for lunch at 11:45 and quickly ordered shortly after. Our strategy of ordering fast backfired when it took 2.5 hours to get our food. While we were waiting for our food, a series of events happened. A kid from another boat joined us and participated in our game of wavelength, which helped us pass the time. Noah took a nap. We all also realized there are different regional versions of the song “Down by the Banks.” This caused a debate over which version was correct. Claire’s and my version was unfortunately voted the incorrect one. Around 1:30, we were all tired of waiting and needed to walk. About half of us made the impulsive decision to take the 10-minute walk to the grocery store. This decision heavily stressed out Julia. Nadiya and Sariah were enjoying their time talking to kids on other boats while Julia was ready to run back to the restaurant, worried that the boys were going to eat our food. Sadly, the stress was all for nothing. We walk back to our table ready to see food and we were quickly defeated when there was nothing there.
We finally got our food around 2:30 (about 30 minutes after the scheduled time to leave). Nonetheless, the food was good and cured our hunger. We then motored back to GHP. Most people on the motorback decided to take a nap, which was so nice. When we arrived back in GHP, we learned that we were going to be rafting with Graytful, which is the DM boat, so they are closer to our age. The boys on our boat bonded with the boys on the other boat, and the girls just chilled. The staff headed off to their meeting, where they would learn about their staff groups for the next session, which we were all excited to learn about. They were all very excited about their groups, which made us all very excited, too. After dinner and a squeeze, we started one of my favorite activities on the trip. Tonight is card night, which is when we all write cards to each other. I love card night, but it is a long night, so we decided to make brookies to help get us through. I can’t believe it is already card night and that tomorrow is our last full day together. I think we are all cherishing our last few moments together.