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Location: Savanna Bay, Virgin Gorda
Hello everyone! My name is Gigi, and today aboard our boat, Portlandia, we started our day off by waking up at 6:30 am and hiking up Spyglass Hill. It was more of a challenge than I originally thought it would be, but in the end, it was all worth it. The view from the top of the hill was breathtaking. Once we got to the top, Elliot, our skipper, took us aside and had us trace our hands onto a piece of paper with sharpies, and inside he had us write down, and our goals for the trip as well decorate it if we wanted to. After walking down the hill, and collecting a few new scrapes and cuts on the way down, we walked over to a helicopter pad to play a game called “Evolution.” It’s kinda hard to explain, but everyone starts as Eggs running around trying to find another egg to play Rock, Paper, Scissors with. The winner becomes a Worm; the loser stays an egg until they can Rock, Paper, Scissors, against another egg. The worms go around playing against each other as well; the winner worms become Dinosaurs, they also go around playing against one another to become Humans. Every time you lose a game, you go back by one, but once you become a human, you win and stand around the edge watching the rest batter to evolve to their “high form.” Even though it was raining for most of the game, it was still really fun and a very interactive game. Afterward, we made our way the rest of the way down the hill to the docks and back to our boats. We made food, ate, then cast off on towards Virgin Gorda. It’s the longest sail of our trip, time wise but not distance. It took us about 4 and a half hours, but we were laughing, learning, and bonding along the way. We also raced the other Go Beyond boat to the island, needless to say, we pulled some “shwifty” moves and came in first! Being that today was my day to be the Skipper or boat driver, I was standing for most if not all the sailing trip. Overall I’d like to think we all had a pretty amazing day. I learn so much about sailing, about being on the ocean, and about my fellow crew members. Once we dropped anchor in the bay, we went to the beach to relax a bit before dinner. We all cleaned up the boat, started dinner, talked, shared stories, and started opening up to each other and bonding as a group. We all eat together in the cockpit, after dinner, we all hold hands and the skipper of the day asks the group a question. We pass the question along to one another by squeezing hands, as well as share our favorite moment of the day. Since it was my turn to be the skipper and come up with a question, I took it upon myself to come up with a question that would make you think as well as show a little bit of who you are in the response. I asked everyone what they wanted to get out of this trip, and how they wanted to grow as a person and or change when they returned home. Listening to everyone’s reasons and thoughts is always one of my favorite things. I can honestly say that every day we spend together we get closer to each other, grow more independent, and overall we grow as human beings sharing this amazing, and beautiful experience. If you’re ever thinking about traveling, I highly suggest it. Life is an adventure, don’t let it pass you by!