Alpha 1 Day 10: Several Friendly Reef Sharks Spotted From Our Hobie Cats

written by Mate-In-Training, Andrew Dyer
July 3, 2017

Bitter End day is always a much-anticipated day by staff and students alike. Everyone was pretty keyed up and extremely excited and ready to go ashore as soon as physically possible once awake and satiated by breakfast. Once ashore, everyone conjugated under the big pavilion where we made our base for the day. At the pavilion, we ran over the day’s schedule, which included; water sports, small boat sailing, relaxing on the beach, going on a hike and hanging around the shops. First on the schedule was the hike. For such a quick assent, the view from the top almost seemed underpriced. Watching out for cactuses, the decent proved a little more challenging, but all arrived back safe and unscathed. With the hike completed, the kids were free to sign up for hour long rotations of various water sports and small boat sailing or simply choose to hang out and relax. Many students were just happy to kick back at the pub and buy food, from pizzas ,hamburgers, salads and sandwiches of every nature.

As the first group of girls from GP3 headed out on the small boats, there was some nervous excitement. But as they got out into the water and found the rhythm of their boat, there were only smiles and laughter. The more experienced of the crew aided the less experienced, showing them the complete thrill that is flying though the water on a Hobie Cat. To add to the excitement, several reef sharks were spotted from the boats, and just for a moment or two, it felt as if they were flying along together in their own separate ways.

As Bitter End day wound to a close, everyone felt happy and full of stories from the day. Once back at boats, we showered and began dinner prep. But the day wasn’t winding down just yet. After dinner and clean, we headed to a different shore, this time — Saba Rock. Saba Rock has a restaurant and hotel that sits atop the small manmade island just off of Bitter End. Our crews got to mix and mingle with the crews from the other boats, and enjoy some well deserved deserts. When the evening ashore concluded, we headed back to boats to finish up the day as we always do, with boat meeting. Our teens were tired but all too excited to share their day with everyone. Once again, we were rocked to sleep with a ceiling of stars and a boat for a bed.