Echo Days 5 & 6: Scrub Island and Night Sail

Day 5: Written by Powell Forshaw

Once the rest of us met the newest member of the team, we treated ourselves to scrambled eggs for breakfast. We quickly made our way to Marina Cay where we picked up a mooring ball and caught up with some of our favorite staff who were in their staff training. Soon afterwards, we made our way to Scrub Island. At Scrub, we had to pick up our new batch of provisions and send off our broken jib to the sailmaker. Because it was our last meal before we received provisions, we were forced to get creative for lunch. This involved many strange combinations including a vast amount of peanut butter.

For the rest of the day, we were treated to the luxury facilities that Scrub had to offer. We basked in their infinity pool and shared some deep chats on the sea trampoline. After a great afternoon of relaxation and several applications of aloe vera on our sunkissed skin, we were able to indulge ourselves to our first land showers of the trip.

After what was quite a chill day, we were able to hang out onboard our boat and enjoy a fancy dinner of pasta avec sausage! Much of the remainder of our evening involved Tarpon watching and storytelling.

Day 6: Written by Julian Reda

Nine o’clock was our wake up. This would be the latest wakeup time of our whole trip, and we certainly took advantage of the extra sleep. The rest of our morning consisted of prepping the boat for our overnight sail coming up. We had some deep cleaning to do, watering up, fueling up, having our jib returned to us, and other minor fixes. By noon, we were a seaworthy vessel. We also had Adrien, another staff member, join us for the night sail.

To clear out of customs, we needed to stop at Leverick, on Virgin Gorda. En route to Leverick, we had a lesson on right of way, and some final tips on night sailing. Customs took longer than expected, but it did not really affect our schedule.

A post-sunset departure sent us on our way. With the sails up, we were split up into three night watches with one staff member, and then us students evenly distributed. Though we were free to sleep, everyone on the boat was together in the cockpit. It was a fantastic sail into the night, with good company.