Alpha 1 Day 9: Wind In Our Favor To Great Dog
written by Alpha mate, Zosha Wiktor
July 2, 2017
Today, we woke up at Trellis Bay to a lovely mountain of pancakes prepared by our breakfast crew. The morning was a little rainy so a hot breakfast was much appreciated by everyone. Today was the day after Challenge day and the crew felt extremely confident in running the boat without the help from staff members after their triumph yesterday. After breakfast, the cleanup crew hurried quickly through their duties for the morning to get going to the Dog Islands for the afternoon.
The sail to the Dogs was incredible. The wind was in our favor and our maneuvers are getting smoother and smoother each passing day. After Challenge day, crews started to work even better together and the teamwork was noticeable on the boats. After a beautiful two hour sail, we picked up mooring balls at Great Dog and lunch crew got to work preparing grilled cheese sammies.
When lunch was finished, the fleet merged together on GP3 for a marine biology lesson on coral and coral reef communities. Coral is everywhere in the BVI and all of our major snorkel sites are typically on a reef. We jumped into the ocean for a fun snorkel on the reef at Great Dog. We found reef fish, invertebrates like sea urchins and colorful sea slugs all living in the same reef. It was a fantastic way to spend an afternoon.
The sail from Great Dog to Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda was also a delightful sail. The fleet practiced their tacks and got even more comfortable with upwind sailing.
As we arrived at the glorious and infamous Bitter End Yacht Club, we picked up mooring balls and settled in for snacks, showers, music and dinner prep. Tonight, we enjoyed our dinner followed by a quiet night onboard all in preparation for a very very long day of some of our favorite activities of all program planned for our Bitter End day tomorrow!
