15
Location: The Bight, Norman Island
The day started at 6:30 am waking up to another morning playlist full of happy songs. After a breakfast of cereal, we all got ready in record time and headed to the Peter Island shore and took a small walk to Thurman’s house. Thurman is one of the only residents who live on the island. His family owns most of the island, but they live a simple life. As a group, we helped Thurman with painting his house bright yellow, yard work and painting the garden fence. At the start of the day, Thurman’s faith in us was low, and he did not believe in our painting skills but after the girls of the boat took charge they showed him their amazing painting skills. Walking away from this project by lunch we all felt proud and accomplished looking back at the sunflower yellow house. All the hard work was soon followed by a walk to Dead man’s bay at the Peter Island resort where we had time for reflection on all the work we have done so far this trip. Some of us also reflected on the conversations we had with Thurman about his life and how he turned his whole life around to live a simpler life. After the beach, we all got some much-deserved boat, swim and snorkel time. Team snorkel saw a turtle, fish, sea cucumber and many other different types of ocean life. Boat time also consisted of flipping, jumping and diving off the boat. Fun time was followed by lunch and a relaxing sail to The Bright on Norman Islands! Dinnertime was left to all the shipmates. With no running water, we all had to overcome the obstetrical and ended up making dinner 2 hours later. Our early morning started with helping out the locals and ended with a relaxing night with time to wind down from the past 13 days. Signing off from a lovely day spent in the Virgin Islands.