Sierra 3, Charlie 3, Foxtrot 3 and Alpha 4, Day 8: Oil Nut Bay

Written and edited by Allie Faulkner

Day 8

It was another early morning wake up for everyone on fleet. We rubbed our sleepy eyes and got up with the sun already shining.  We had a nutritious breakfast of breakfast burritos, cleaned up and then started to get ready to leave.

We dropped the ball at Anegada, motored out of the chanel and were on our way to Oil Nut Bay! We raised our sails very quickly. It was a windy day so we put a reef in our mainsail and jib. It was an exciting, adventurous sail keeping everyone involved and engaged. We were riding large waves and our skipper was doing a great job of navigating them. It was quite a long sail so we had to have lunch underway; we had fantastic greek pitas for lunch! We cleaned up a bit while still underway until the skipper needed hands for a maneuver.

Once we got close to the North Sound of Virgin Gorda, we dropped our sails and made our way through the channel. We made it to the Oil Nut Bay resort area and moored in Deep Bay. We picked up the ball on the first try and were settled for the night.

For the afternoon, the different programs had different activities to do. The Sierra students had a mangrove lesson and went on a snorkel to collect data for their projects. The Foxtrot students went turtle tagging and the Charlie and Alpha students did watersports, hung out on the boat and splashed around. Everyone enjoyed their different activities and being with their friends.

We all gathered back together after our activities to head to shore for a social. We went to the marina village at Oil Nut Bay and were able to get drinks and desserts if we wanted to. They were all delicious and we felt very lucky to be able to hang out there. We got to play games like corn hole and giant Jenga, and were able to swim in the pool; we all had a fantastic time!

We all eventually headed back to out boats to start showers and dinner prep. We had a new recipe of southwest chicken skillet. It was outstanding and we all really enjoyed it! After dinner and a big clean of the boat, we all settled in for boat meeting. During boat meeting we talked about the upcoming day. Tomorrow is challenge day and our captain and mate went over a lot of things with us so we would feel prepared. Challenge day is when the students take over the boat, having to sail with little instruction and keep to the days schedule. Thinking about how we were going to be successful the upcoming day, we headed to bed to rest up for the big day ahead.