Location: Sommer's Beach, Tortola
Hey, y’all, it’s Alivia on skipper duty today! Right now, I’m sitting at the back of the boat surrounded by my amazing shippee friends, chatting about our wonderful day. This morning, I awoke from the best sleep I’ve ever had in the beautiful bay of Muskmelon. For breakfast, we had cinnamon, apple, and maple oatmeal, which Avery and Sahil had set up. I normally don’t like oatmeal, but there’s something about this place that makes us all enjoy foods we typically dislike. It was another rotation day, so we had water sports, scuba diving, and hiking. Water sports was enjoyable, as always, and Dillon showed off his great 360 kneeboarding skills while River crashed hard on the wakeboard.
Then, we went super fast on the dinghy and got soaked by the waves. We headed over to Gap Year, which is our designated scuba boat, and put all of our gear together. When we got to the bottom, we took off our fins so we could stand on the sandy ground. My group and I got to do backflips and moon bounces underwater, which was the most fun and exhilarating experience I’ve had so far. Thankfully, my friend Laurel was able to scuba dive even after being a bit sick. She really loves scuba diving, and now so do I! After diving, we hung out on the hardtop, and most of us took naps.
When we got back to our boat, we discovered that our pineapple was stolen, and our butter was applied (meaning an apple got put into our butter, haha). At lunchtime, we had some white bean soup, which Avery said looked very questionable (it looked like mush), but it ended up being pretty fire. After cleaning up lunch, we did some paddle boarding, which is my least favorite rotation. It was honestly a slow paddle, but once we got to the little rocky beach, we got to sit on the soft sand and chill. Carlie and Grace were zooming past all of us, though. Once we got back, we took a break, and then we got a radio call that there were dolphins! We followed them around and saw that there were two of them! They were so cute, and some of the staff and students from a different boat got to dive with them. After dolphin watching, we went on a hike. It was so steep and slippery, but the view was so worth it. There were a lot of cacti, and Arthur somehow picked one up and carried it around. Kaya and Michelle slipped several times when coming down, which was very funny. We then headed back to our boat and got ready for the BBQ! We took a quick ocean shower and then got dressed.
Avery and Carlie helped steer the helm towards our new temporary home, Sommers Beach. While we were sailing, Kaya and Leila plucked Dillon’s eyebrows and gave him a facial. The view at the beach was so pretty, and all of us girls took pictures on the hardtop. Emma and JT also joined us in their silly “Dulamimi” pajamas, and we all took a group photo with them. We got onto the beach via a “wet entry” off the dinghy, so my shorts were soaked for half the night. The food was hot dogs, hamburgers, and different salads. This BBQ was pretty short and chill compared to the last one since it was on a random beach. Now, it’s time to get some rest, and then we’ll go off to our next adventure. Bye for now, and see y’all in 8 days!
Love, Alivia, Avery, Sahil, Dillon, River, Arthur, Laurel, Michelle, Kaya, Leila, Grace, Carlie.