7
Location: Leverick Bay, Virgin Gorda
Today was our second “big” project day, and this time, instead of helping out at Valley Day school, we went over to Julie’s house to help destroy and sort the debris the hurricane had caused. It was a ~very~ long day. We worked under the sun from 9 am (ish) to 4 pm, clearing bags of trash filled with glass shards and (huge!) cockroaches, destroying the house’s roof, cutting down weeds and branches to clear Julie’s property, and carrying twisted metal rods up to the big dumpster we were using. At the cost of a few very red sunburns and ant bites, we managed to complete our job – to quote Elliot, the place “looked considerably worse than when we had started”. In all seriousness, although this project was taxing, seeing Julie’s reaction to the progress we had made was super rewarding. Plus, we got another visit from Dory, Julie’s daughter, who made us laugh and feel bad about ourselves at the same time by showing us our disheveled reflections in her hand-held mirror. After finishing this, we headed back to the boat, feeling tired and sweaty and sore, to prepare for the first AQ bbq. As a special treat, we got to use our heads’ freshwater showers (and feel clean!!). Once we were all done, we drove our dinghy to port and enjoyed a delicious meal of pasta salad and hamburgers and watermelon. We spent the rest of our time at the beach dancing the night away, inspired by Kyle’s fantastic dance moves. It felt amazing to finally return to our boat and fall asleep.
Overall, as much fun as today was, I’m just glad it was over and excited to sleep in.