11
Location: Marina Cay
Rebuilding island life is not the only goal this boat has; the crew of Aquamarine also has their minds set on making the islands better off than they were before Irma struck, and that includes assisting in making them food independent. Hearing an Irma story from a local contact named Julie which discussed the issue of Virgin Gorda not receiving any food, water, or aid for seven days after the storm which resulted in serious issues for the brave survivors of Irma’s wrath undoubtedly moved everyone that heard it and motivated us that much more to help break ground on the community garden she is planning to start on the Island to create a form of food security.
After our standard 6:30 a.m. wake up, we were able to move our boat from Savannah Bay to Spanish Town and complete the last of the many trips we have made to the Valley in Virgin Gorda over the past eleven days. Leaping onto an all too familiar dock followed by the hoisting of tools and gear into Julie’s truck is one of the many things that I believe we will all miss doing now that that part of our journey has wrapped up. We then traveled to an overgrown lot that was going to be used as the land for the life-changing garden as soon as we cleared it, and cleared it we did. Once the land looked less like the Amazon, and more like the ideal place to grow food in just a matter of a few hours we all hopped on the boat, we will soon no longer call home and motored to Trellis Bay where we were given the greatest gift of all- shore time. Making two and a half hours feel like mere minutes is shore time’s greatest talent, and once again we all found ourselves moving to another location, the last of the day. After we filled up our water tanks and took showers down below in Marina Key, Elliot, Stefan, and I found ourselves heading back to Trellis to get the food for all of the GoBeyond fleet, this time our choice of transportation was just an inflatable tender properly known as Shadow. Distributing all of the rice that the three of us accumulated from the dive side boat Changes in Latitude was no small task, especially when valuable onions are being tossed at you, but somehow we were able to get it done. Surprisingly this blog is not the last thing on the checklist today, and in just a few minutes we will all gather in our common area and listen to an audio tape as a group. Sending best wishes from Aquamarine!