Alpha 3 2015 Trip Blog- Day 2
written by mate of Xeres, Alex Armson, Brought to you by the crew of Xeres
July 23, 2015
Today, Lily was our skipper of the day, Davis was the navigator and Charlie was our ship’s mate. It was the beginning of our first full day on Xeres and we were woken by roosters early in the morning. We then had a delicious buffet breakfast which was prepared by Andrew Lee and Jeremy. After, we did our prior-to-first lesson, which is where we learn all the basics of boat life, both above and below decks. We then went to the Sail Caribbean Divers dive shop where Lily, Sydney, Davis, Nick and Allegra all bought hammocks to relax on the boats with during program.
We all returned to Xeres to learn about de-docking and formed a plan for leaving Hodges Creek Marina. Within 40 minutes, we had successfully left the docks with Lily doing a great job at controlling the boat out of the marina and into the channel towards Cooper Island. Alex, Xeres‘ mate, then taught a lesson on raising the main sail and unfurling the jib. Allegra and Jeremy were our monkeys at the mast and did a great job of working the halyard.
During the voyage, we beat upwind to Cooper Island and got to practice our tacking, followed by a mooring lesson. We managed to hook our mooring ball first time thanks to our excellent team work. As soon as we were on the mooring ball, a huge turtle swam past the boat which was really exciting for everyone! After, we had lunch and completed a swim test. Andrew Lewis, Davis, Charlie, Nick and Sam went to shore to begin their confined water skills, working towards their Open Water certifications, while Kat, Allegra and Sydney had their skills checked off by the dive instructors. Meanwhile, our non divers for the day, Andrew Lee, Lily and Jeremy went to shore to go paddle boarding and kayaking.
We all returned to the boat where Alex Polli and Alex Armson did a boat shower demo, and then we prepared dinner and hung up our hammocks. We ended the day with a boat meeting then powered down. Today our crew did a great job of working together as a team to get maneuvers done successfully but we need to improve on our listening skills. Our miracle moment was seeing so many turtles today!
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