Location: Vixen Point, Gorda Sound
After a very eventful night at the Leverick Bay BBQ, we woke up at 7:00 to a very simple breakfast, Oatmeal, brought out by Eres, Ellery, and Lily(Bear). After a fun and song-filled dishy pit, we went to shore for our first activity in our rotation day, Paddleboarding and Zesting. Instead of dingy-ing over to the beach, Payton, Bear, and I used paddle boards. Lulu and I, Bear, Ellery, and Eres took paddle boards to chill next to other boats like Odyssey. I swam out to catch up with Teddy, Georgina (Lanie), and Tatum on the paddle board. We are very suspicious that other people on paddle boards stole our paddle. Teddy, Georgina, and I started to make our way back to the beach while Tatum swam to Odyssey to get some craisins from the shippies on their boat. Finn, Oscar, and Zander all went on a zest together and started a towing business (5 stars). We hopped onto another zest and made six people fit on it. Obviously, it capsized.
Next, we were sent to Second Wind, the dive boat, to complete our Navigation Dive. We set up our dive equipment and headed onto the dinghy over to the Mangroves. We got into the water with a cool backward entrance, and most of us completed our Navigation Dive! After, we went to lunch which was Deli Sandwiches which was set up by Shona. While enjoying our pre-prepared lunch, our staff introduced us to the 20 questions challenge. We were only allowed to ask them 20 informational questions as a whole to help us work together as a group to determine answers. If we succeed, we would get a prize.
Next, Ellery, Eres, and Georgina went out to knee-board, and Ellery and Georgina completed a 360 while Eres perfected her 180. On another dingy, Bear, Peyton, and Oskar went wakeboarding. Oscar discovered his 180 on the wakeboard and was able to do it multiple times. When Shona came to pick the rest of us up, Tatum, Lulu, Zander, Finn, Teddy, and I went on the last round of water sports. Most of us split up onto staff member James’ dingy. I tried tubing on a kneeboard, and supposedly looked like a rag doll (Bear’s words). On James’ dingy, everyone was either extremely lucky or got insanely good quickly. First was Oskar, who showed off some more. Finn was next and did very well on the wakeboard, where he got up every time and even went outside the wake. Tatum decided to try wakeboarding and ended up getting up and going outside the wake for the first time. Peyton also did very well while going outside the wake. When I went up on the kneeboard, I tried a 360 and got it on my first try. Then, Teddy shocked us all and did insanely amazing on the kneeboard. He effortlessly glided across the waves while doing multiple 360s. As he was getting up, the kneeboard shot underwater, making him sink like a submarine – it was very funny. Next, Lulu also went knee-boarding and completed a 180!! Lastly, Bear tried my tubing style and stayed on for so long.
Everyone came back from their water sports, and we got ready for a fish ID talk. We learned about many different types of fish and had to take a test; it was pretty easy. After this, we discovered that paddles and life jackets went missing, so we had to look for them. Eventually, Shona dove and found the paddle while Cara was secretly getting chased by a massive barracuda. Our chefs, Ellery and Eres, started to make one of my favorite dinners, Mexican Night. Kaleigh was very helpful in the cooking process, especially in making sure Ellery wouldn’t cut her finger off again. (Artistic license, I guess? No fingers have been cut off yet ~ staff) Then, we started our shorter sail to Mountain Point. We kept looking for the missing life jacket, but we had no luck. We anchored in Mountain Point and enjoyed our delicious tacos. We then found out what the surprise was from our amazing staff. It was brownies. Overall, today was such a crazy adventure, and I’m so excited for what’s to come.