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Location: Great Harbor, Peter Island
We woke up this morning at 7, which was nice after the late night at Sydney’s barbecue yesterday. Lydia and Ladislas made french toast for the boat for breakfast, which we all devoured. After eating, we picked up anchor and got ready to sail back to West End, Tortola. We raced Catalinaville to the dock, and even though they smoked us, it was still a blast to drive the boat under just the power of the sail. It’s crazy how much my steering has improved since I first got on the boat. I even got to dock the boat at the marina once we arrived in West End. After docking, we had some free time on shore while we filled the tanks with water. All of the power was out at first because of a nearby fire, but it was still fun to be able to have some time on shore. We then got back on the boat and had chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. After eating, we moved the boat from the dock to a mooring ball and then rode the dingy back to shore. We took a quick walk over to Frenchmen’s Cay for a project that involved tracking and replanting mangroves. It was incredible to see all of the mangroves that had been planted by past members of the Lifeworks community, and it felt great to see a tangible difference that the program has made in the environment. We counted about 300 healthy mangroves that were growing strong as a result of Lifeworks planting projects, and we planted many more. We spent a few hours measuring and planting mangroves and then headed back to the boat for a long sail to Peter Island. We spent a few hours sailing to our destination, and I split my time at the helm and on the trampoline enjoying the view.
We talked back and forth until we reached the island where we rafted up with Catalinaville. It was a little scary having to maneuver our boat to sit right next to another boat that was also moving but it was an awesome experience to successfully attach two huge catamarans. After we were settled, we took saltwater showers and Lydia started dinner. We all pitched in to help Lydia make franks and beans, which we then all ate out in the cockpit. We finished off dinner with two squeeze questions, mine and Taylor’s from last night (she didn’t get to ask hers yesterday because of the barbecue), which everyone went around answering while also revealing his or her favorite part of the day (mine was seeing the mangroves!) Right now most of my shipmates are cleaning the dishes from dinner and we’ll probably head to bed after our night meeting. We need to catch up on sleep for another big day tomorrow! I can’t believe that our time together is almost over but I can’t wait to see what’s in store for these last few days!