Alpha 1 2015 – Day 12

written by mate, Alex Armson, Brought to you by the crew of Venture

Today, our captain was Ellie and Sara was her navigator and mate. We sailed from Trellis on Beef Island to White Bay on Guana Island. After a delicious breakfast of pancakes made by Jenna and Mike, the divers Daniel, Ellie, Mike and Sean went on their last dive session and went to Diamond Reef. They saw two giant reefs next to each other and it looked like the Grand Canyon under water. Meanwhile, Sara and Jack went tubing and because it was so choppy, it was difficult to stay on. After a lot of preparation, Julian and Jenna took their ASA examinations which they both passed, qualifying them to sail 26 foot keel boats!

Today, everyone was super excited because it was finally race day. We unleashed our secret weapon (wing-on-wing sailing down wind) and left Xeres in our wake. After an intense race around Guana Island, we made it to our mooring ball first. However, for a moment it seemed like all was lost because there was no painter. Perry found it, therefore securing us on the mooring ball and ensuring our place as the Alpha champions.

We made a cake to celebrate and had sloppy joes for dinner. When it got dark, we got to see bio-luminescent, which are small animals which let off bright neon light when they are agitated. They looked like little stars in the ocean which was amazing. Today, our crew did a great job of quickly jibing and working together to get the boat moving as quickly and efficiently as possible. However, we still need to work on cleaning. Our miracle moment was seeing the biolume.