Early Foxtrot & Early Sierra Day 12: Trellis Bay to Long Bay For Some Friendly Competition
written by Early Foxtrot & Early Sierra mate, Zosha Wiktor
June 20, 2017
After a much appreciated sleep-in, the students woke up to the beautiful sights, sounds and light rain of Trellis Bay. Well-rested, fed and ready for the day, the fleet headed to shore to start the adventurous day off with a marine biology lesson. Students learned about some of the different groups of invertebrates on our planet and common inverts we see here in the British Virgin Islands. After the lesson, we all had a chance to explore the art installations and shops at a local artist Aragorn’s studio. Aragorn’s studio features metal sculptures, art t-shirts, pottery, prints and other Caribbean crafts – the perfect place for an awesome gifts and knick-knacks.
Post shopping, most of the students went back to boats while a select few chose to travel back to our home base of Hodges Creek marina to practice sailing on Sail Caribbean’s own 26 ft. keelboat, Opal Bella.
On the big boats, after pre-departure checks were complete, the fleet strapped on their life jackets and began the short voyage around the corner of Beef Island to Long Bay. The boats perfected their anchoring skills and had a triumphant jump into the ocean before lunch.
After lunch, the boats designed and crafted their boat specific spirit flags for the OLYMPICS!! Sail Caribbean’s Olympics Games (combined with the Early Alpha fleet) consisted of four events: the dizzy fender relay, boat tug-o-war, bury your captain, and synchronized swimming. After a tough competition, Hully Gully took the cup winning two out of the four events and Paso Doble took home the cup for one!
Following the entertaining beach competition, Foxtrot and Sierra headed out to search for turtles for some turtle tagging community service. Every summer, Sail Caribbean helps the BVI Turtle Monitoring Program tag Green and Hawksbill Turtles for population estimates and clues into their life history for conservation efforts in the BVI. Sierra and Foxtrot had a wavy ride over from Long Bay to the reef at Diamond Head to search for turtles. Although we couldn’t find any turtles, the snorkel was absolutely awesome and we all enjoyed the pursuit in the waves.
The fleet returned to Long Bay for a tasty tasty beach BBQ all coordinated by our Operations and Office staff. Burgers, hot dogs, portabella mushrooms, watermelon, cookies — oh my! It was the perfect meal for our last true night out at sea. The fleet then headed back to their boats tired from a full day of fun for quality crew time and our last ocean-y boat meetings.
