16
Location: Sommer's Beach, Tortola
The sun woke us up bright and early. Today was the second day that we were going to Aragorn’s farm. Previously, we had shoveled compost and started on some new rows in one of his new beds. Today was a bit different because the night before, we had another cookout with the whole fleet about fifteen minutes away. Fortunately, our CEO, Mike, lent us his dinghy named Great White. This was no ordinary thirty-horsepower dinghy. This one was a 130-horsepower titanium beast. We all got into this dinghy and were preparing for a smooth ride. Then I recall someone saying, “punch it chewy,” and boom, we were zooming. That fifteen-minute trip turned into a five-minute trip with the spray of the water all over us. We arrived before the taxi was even there. So consequently, we got to chill out for a second and prepare for probably the hardest day on our journey.
After arriving at the farm, we received our job assignments for that day. One group would be shoveling chicken manure for compost, and the other would be smoothing out drainage ditches and creating more ditches. In the beginning, it was split about 50/50 on work. As time went on, though, the split would be about 90/10 towards the chicken manure. The reason was because bees! The group where I was at, was the ditch group, and as the day went on, people would run away from these honey bees that, for some reason, would not leave people alone. At first, people would run away and come back and do that about five times. Slowly but steadily, people would just have enough and not come back. The chicken manure group was growing as time went on. If I recall correctly, in the last hour, it was just Riley and me, with Carolina occasionally coming back even though her greatest fear is bees. At the break for lunch, we had the usual PBandJ, and then all took a forty-minute nap. Waking up from that nap and going back was probably one of the hardest things. The groups were split 50/50 again, but as time went on, history repeats itself.
Riley and I finished up the ditches above, and the day was a success. We traveled down to see how the chicken manure spreading was going, and everything smelled awful but looked amazing. Riley and I then took a walk down the terrace farm on the side of the mountain and got to this little colorful cabin bursting with color. We got to the porch and lie on the hammock watching the most scenic view one has ever seen. We stayed there for about five minutes and then joined the rest of the group for a tour of the whole farm. During the tour, we acquired many goodies such as mangoes, turmeric, Jamaican fire chilis, and some lettuce. We left that farm that day with a little bit more appreciation of a farmer’s day-to-day lifestyle.
We got back to the boat, and all immediately fell into the water with all of our clothes on, for we were exhausted and needed some refreshing water. Also, our Captain, Chris, would not allow us on the boat because of how dirty we looked. That night we had some Thai red curry which was maybe one of the best meals on the boat—a deserving meal for a well-worked day.