Location: Vixen Point, Gorda Sound
Hi Dad, I miss you and the dog lots. And for the rest of you, my name is Rangeley, and I’m from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. This morning we woke up to some music to get us going, and then the chef of the day, Jack, helped make us all French toast which we may have had seconds and thirds of. At 8, we had navigation lessons where we learned how to read charts and plot coordinates, then did a lesson on compasses where I learned the difference between the real North Pole and the magnetic North Pole. Lastly, we had a lesson about navigation. Then we had some downtime where Avery, Aria, Amelia, Taylor, and Hanna all made each other friendship bracelets. Then we went out on the dingy for a joyride on our dingy named Sumo while Carlos, Jack, Dylan, Yony, and Bree wakeboarded. On our joy ride, the engine shut off, and we learned how to switch the boat’s gas tank. Then we went back to our boat and had chicken salad wraps for lunch which was my personal favorite of the trip, before heading to the dive boat and gearing up.
We had our second day of confined water diving lessons and finished all of our confined water skills. I was super scared, but I have the best dive group, Aria, Beth, and Amelia, and we worked through it together. We even got to get inches away from a baby stingray who loved us and stuck around throughout our whole lesson. After diving, we took out the miniature sailboats called Zests, which we had a lesson on operating today. Hanna Aria, Amelia, and I drove it around in circles around the other boats and impressed the other councilors with our skills! We then traded our sailboat with Belle, Taylor, Avery, and Dylan for the paddle boards, where Amelia and I tried to tan while we waited to go back to the Odyssey. When we got home, we put our life jackets on and set sail. My favorite thing to do is sit up in the cockpit and watch our Captain Tait sail. When we anchored, we tied our boat to another that my best friend was on, so I got to take a tour of her boat and meet her new friends too. Then we showered while the chefs made us broccoli Mac n cheese, which unexpectedly impressed us all. Now we’re heading up to the cockpit to do our nightly tradition called squeeze, and then I’ll head over to my friend’s boat and chill out with her until bedtime. That’s all for today. See you in 11 days, Dad!