Foxtrot 1 & Sierra 1 Day 15: Mission Save The Stolen Pineapple Float
July 9, 2016
The smell of cinnamon rolls greeted the crew members who weren’t on breakfast prep this morning. After a warm and filling breakfast, both boats jumped in the water for a little morning turtle tagging. A turtle was pursued by students for some time, but it proved to be too fast for our friends in fins. Everyone still had a great time taking an early morning swim. While most people were turtling, two boys from Spyglass went on a little recon mission to get the stolen pineapple float back from Moselle. This was the third or fourth attempt and we were finally successful! We have our beloved float back for plenty of fun in the sun. Turtling ended after a little over an hour and everyone returned to their boats.
After getting back to boats, both crews performed pre-departure checks and pulled up anchor to set sail for Soper’s Hole Marina at the west end of Tortola. The boats gybed their way down the channel. It is safe to say that everyone is very likely an expert at gybing now.
We arrived at Soper’s Hole around noon. The mooring field was packed, so we spent a bit of time weaving around the field looking for open mooring balls. We found ourselves a place to stay for the night, secured our lines and turned off the engines. The crews made lunch and did a mini deep clean of the boats. We all made our way to shore to check out the restaurant and the shops. Once again, everyone got smoothies and icy sweet drinks. A few people managed to get appetizers that looked absolutely amazing.
Everyone headed back to boats a little after 4 p.m. to get ready for dinner. Dinner tonight was the Chili Cookoff! Every boat had to come up with a theme, decorate the boat to the theme, come up with a fun presentation of the chili and of course, try their hand at making delicious chili. Spyglass decided on a Hawaiian theme. They strung sheets up all over the bimini to create an atmosphere of a fancy restaurant on the beach in Hawaii, complete with orange life jackets on deck brushes as tiki torches and the giant pineapple as the centerpiece. The music complimented the theme and everyone put on leis. Moselle did an “under the sea” theme where they utilized the whale float that they had stolen from Spyglass while the pineapple was being rescued. Creating the theme, decorating the boat, and coming up with a plan for the whole event really brought everyone even closer together. It also definitely brought out some very silly sides of people that hadn’t been seen before. The “Chileans” came over and judged the theme, presentation and taste of the chili.
After a very long dinner prep, and an almost equally long dinner clean up, the crews were exhausted. The boats held boat meeting, talked about how awesome of a day they had – it was relaxing but jam-packed and a ton of fun – and headed in for a well deserved night’s sleep.
