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Location: Cane Garden Bay, Tortola
Hi everyone!
As we continue this boat trip and are more than halfway done (so sad!), our boat has gotten so close. And today was so much fun hanging around with everyone. This morning was off to a great start, as it was the first night in a couple of days that the outdoor sleepers got any sleep. Prior to last night, we had some very wet nights at 3 a.m. heavy rainstorms. So, waking up not totally exhausted was a good change! Then, we had a really great breakfast of bagels with cream cheese, yogurt, and even scrambled eggs. After that, we sailed towards Monkey Point (a gorgeous spot for snorkeling in the BVI) to do our turtleing. But since we haven’t found any turtles yet, we decided the word ‘turtle’ is unlucky. So, we now call them frogs. Spoiler alert: We still didn’t catch any frogs… But we did all work really hard and did some intense snorkeling for what felt like years, really only 2 hours. Riley (our counselor) spotted two turtles while on the dinghy, but no one was close enough to catch them. Then we swam through hundreds of jellyfish.. all kinds (from moon jellies to the stingy kind). All of us except for Wil and Rishi managed to escape it. It wasn’t hard to avoid them, but the two boys decided to pick up the jellyfish, and the inevitable happened: they got stung. Edie was also very fortunate to get out okay because her mask was so foggy that she couldn’t see any of them. Lucky for her, though, her amazing dive buddy (me) led her through all the jellyfish.
Although she suffered a few minor heart attacks in the process, finally, after all this snorkeling and no success with the frog/turtles, we were all totally exhausted. So, the hour sail to the bay consisted of a group boat nap. Slightly more rested by the end of the sail, a bunch of us decided to go swimming. And doing pull-ups on the side of the boat with Riley, Edie, Katie, Rishi, and Wil was really fun. We also did more penguin jumps, and Katie became a pro at doing front flips from the high jump. Riley and I then decided to make brownies together, and after getting over a bunch of hurdles, the end result was pretty good (though not our finest). Our first issue was our measuring cup had broken that morning, so we had to guess our measurements.
Then, we forgot to put eggs in the batter, which Riley realized right before we stuck it in the oven. But we then had to mix them into the buttered pan, therefore making the brownies stick to the pan.. but it was still delicious. And we added pretzels to half of the brownies! We then snacked on some more pretzels with chocolate frosting and had carrots with ranch. Then, for dinner, we were supposed to have a “Thanksgiving dinner,” but the boat took a vote, so we ended up doing pancakes instead with Nutella. All it was missing was strawberries, but we were on a boat. So sad. But Katie and Edie still made some very good pancakes, though Edie was a bit distracted by the cooking, so it was more Katie, but the effort was still visible. In the meantime, me and Manola chit chatted and listened to a lot of rap music. And she started making me a sting bracelet, which I am very excited about. After that, we ate our dinner with everyone at the table, keeping up the rap music (lots of Kanye and Drake).
Katie knew all the songs by heart, but the rest of us acted as her chorus. We then all chilled around while Margaux described all these stories about her being part of the ski team before being summoned for our nightly “squeeze”. This is where we all choose a partner and do fun facts for everyone. the skipper (me) comes up with a question for the group, and we share our appreciation of the day. My partner was Manola, and she explained how she flipped an ATV with her mom and sister in it. We all shared some good laughs. The question for tonight was, ‘What is your favorite place you’ve ever traveled to’.
In my opinion, Trisha has been to the most unique place, and she definitely made me want to travel to the Galapagos. We then ate the brownies. Mixed reviews, but I think it was still very good! Now, we are hanging out at the bow of the boat. Katie and Edie are talking to me as I write this, and Rishi and Aditya are hanging their feet down from the top deck above us. We took a funny selfie and the “aesthetic” feet hanging picture. We are finding this so funny right now for no reason. It may be just because we are so tired, but it’s still so freaking funny. Miss you guys all at home, goodnight, love ya’ll!!
Xoxo,
Samira