Location: Sidney's, Jost van Dyke
Hi everyone, it’s Emily! Today, we woke up relatively late because the counselors had to leave for a staff meeting, and we stayed back on the boat. We were also all very tired from the barbecue last night. We were still in Jost Van Dyke, which is super pretty. It was pancake day, so Mateo and Miers spent a long time making sure our pancakes were great and that there was enough for all of us. They were delicious, and everyone had them with either Nutella or syrup. I then unpacked the stuff I got from Sidney’s last night into our room, which included two shirts for me and a hat that I got for my dad. Yesterday was super fun talking to everyone and everything but today was good to wind down from all the craziness. We set sail for the day, and Miers and Shawn did their sail practical while we all did a man overboard. A man overboard is where they throw a fender into the water as we are sailing as a “man overboard,” and we had to go and retrieve it. Sandy Cay was our destination for swimming and lunch, which was chicken wraps, while Grace made Turks Heads (bracelets or anklets that we all made the other day) for Mateo, Dylan, and Shawn. We jumped into the water and anchored right next to Odyssey, our friend boat, which we said we were able to wave to. Piper was practicing her knots a lot, and even though we were not getting our sailing certifications and Barracudas, we still had to pass our basic knot test living on the boat, so everyone had been practicing. Sandy Cay may be one of my favorite places we’ve been so far, and I’m glad we got to go, even for a short time.
We then sailed to our current location, Sandy Spit, where we went for a dive called the playground because there are many schools of fish. We took the dinghy out to a separate location instead of diving from our boat, and we dived with DM’s (divemasters) because they were training to take their first step into professional diving. We split into groups for the dive, and it was a “Fun Dive” for most of us, which is a dive that you do just to explore the views and don’t do any specific skills, but it was still a certification dive for Lila and Shawn because Shawn is an Aquarius (his program) while the rest of us are Barracuda and Lila missed one of our certification dives earlier due to an equalization issue. My group, Camila, Caitlyn, Max, and Matt and I had a lot of fun, but Caitlyn had to go up early sadly because she wasn’t feeling great and couldn’t equalize, but she said she had a great nap on the dinghy above water. Camila and I were buddies, and we saw lionfish, trumpet fish, and eels. My highlight of the dive, and probably the day, too, was that there was a turtle that swam right in front of us, which was the first time I’d seen turtles diving the whole trip. On the way home from diving, we connected four dinghies together and rode everyone back together as a “mega dinghy.”
When we got back, we jumped into the water and took ocean showers before eating dinner. Shawn retrieved his inflatable flamingo named “Flemy” from another boat he stole from. For dinner, we had sausage, beans, and rice, which wasn’t my favorite of the whole trip but was still very good. For my squeeze we did squeeze-dance, and we all went to the hardtop and had a dance party. It was so much fun, and everyone joined in. For squeeze, we all decided to either waffle or pancake (holding hands), and most people do waffling. James made us cornbread for dessert, which was delicious, and everyone was very thankful. After everyone had cornbread, we had a second dance party where Shawn and Miers had the best dance moves, and we were going crazy. Mateo got his hair braided by Caitlyn but then took it out to do Camila’s hair routine. Today has not been super eventful, but it has been super fun. The days have been going by so quickly, and as much as I’m excited to see everyone, I’m so sad that it’s going to end in a few days. Talk to everyone in two days, and see you soon! Love you, Mom and Dad!