Location: The Bight, Norman Island
This morning, a majority of the crew woke up in the West End to the sound of roosters and dog fights, but luckily, I didn’t wake up to the noise, but rather the company of my fellow shipmates waiting for breakfast. Cereal was for breakfast, cheffed up by Celeste and Houston. After our filling meal, we headed to Omar’s restaurant to listen to Mike’s opening speech about the trip. Although we were sat on the concrete floor with 150 other students, the speech was riveting and arguably the highlight of my morning. Once we finished up at Omar’s, we headed back to the boat to take our group photo and go over the different parts of the boat before heading out for our sail to The Bite. B, however, was not able to stay awake after the speech and fell asleep in a variety of locations around the boat (pictured below photography by yours truly). Our final order of business before heading out was taking a group photo with Patrick the Pineapple, the new official mascot of Iles et Ailes. Once our photo was done and Patrick was safely secured so he wouldn’t topple in transit, we said goodbye to West End and headed on our first sail. HOWEVER, the moment we left the dock, it began to run, but fear not, the shippies of Iles et ailes are not afraid of a little water (luckily because otherwise this would be a rough three weeks for us). We sat up front on the trampoline while Will navigated through the storm and Noah and Houston assisted in longlining the dinghy as we set off. After a bit, Will called us to the cockpit, the demo raising the main sail. Maren assisted in Ease the main sheet while Houston and Noah watched the lazy jacks, and Garry and Megan raised the main sail. After that, we hung out around the boat and enjoyed the breeze.
While en route, the chefs cooked up some deli sandwiches, which hit the spot. Shortly after lunch, we arrived at The Bite to snorkel the cav, but not before completing the dreaded SWIM TEST: 6 laps around the boat and 10 minutes treading water a lot, but we all managed to complete the test! After the test, we hung around the boat for a bit, completing some majorly awesome tricks off the side of the boat, most notably an impressive twist by B. After we went and snorkeled the caves for a bit before returning for our first ocean shower of the summer, which really isn’t as bad as it might seem (and more fun than a normal shower). After showering, I went up to the lounge to read with Sariah, Nadia, Ella, Sadie, and B. Meanwhile, Julia borrowed a crossword book to complete while waiting. After hanging out for a while, we came down for dinner at Sloppy Joe’s, and SURPRISE: Mike decided to join us for dinner (this is extra special because we were the first boat that hosted Mike this summer (a real Honor)). Sloppy Joe’s were delicious, and for cleanup, Ella did an amazing Deckie job with B.