Sierra/ Foxtrot Day 19: Brought to you by the staff.
Day 19
Dead Man’s Bay to Cooper Island
This morning marked the final full day at sea. After a fun night of impressing the Chileans with finely prepared chili, extravagant decorations, and choreographed performances, the fleet woke up prepared for the events to follow. Samba was blasting pump up music at 7:30, preparing its crew for the Olympic events that were shortly to ensue. Each boat created a flag with their group’s name and symbol (Evil GENEVEl being one of the more puny themes). The entire fleet ascended on the white sandy beach at the far end of the bay, presented their boats to the Olympian hosting the tournament, and prepared for the first challenge.
The “Fender Race” took each member of each team on a jaunt down the beach adorned in a mask and fins aiming for a fender at the far side. After 5 spins around, with their head to the fender, they had to overcome the dizziness to make it back to their teammates.
The next event, the “Tug-o-War”! This event had several upsets in the form of the youngest boat, Mazurka, who soundly defeated all other competitors. When the students were challenged by the staff they were quick to accept and plot against them. After the start on our third cry out of “1-2-3-PULL!!”, the students released their end in unison, leaving every staff member on their backs, touche students, touche. After some laughs and playful taunting, the third event was presented. Catch a captain or mate on your boat and turn them into a beautiful sand art installation.
Samba captured a mate and turned her into a scuba diver, Mazurka harnessed their captain and a mate and created a grazing sea turtle and her baby, and Geneve transformed their captain into the dysfunctional head (toilet) that occupies their starboard pontoon, complete with a pump and y-valve to the sea! The final event was the synchronized swimming, which all groups competed with very unique routines. The Olympic games had come to an end and the boats were satisfied with their performances, perhaps secretly hoping for a tug-o-war rematch!
Lunch was distracted by a caught sea turtle, and the Mazurka crew was quick to get the kit prepared and assist in the measuring of a 63.6 cm turtle. After lunch, the Sierra divers were picked up for their final dive, while the Foxtrot fleet headed East to Cooper, Samba practicing Man Over Board drills to qualify several of her crew with the opportunity to pass their Mate Certification. At Cooper, we learned about fish IDs and went for a snorkel to help out with Reef Aware, a project monitoring the health of a reef based on biodiversity, as well as some more turtle watch and attempted tagging. During dinner prep, and staff meeting, Samba’s mooring ball was plucked from the sea bed, but fortunately the well trained crew was able to safely maneuver the boat to a new ball with the assistance of only one mate!! The evening was crammed with tests and letters to self, and sad feelings beginning to make themselves present as the realization that tomorrow is the last day begun to sink in. One final day to ahead to catch the last turtle, clean the boats and end the program with a bang!!
Don’t forget out professional photographers Armando Jenik and Yachtshots BVI!
Armando Jenik: http://www.digiproofs.com/ecom/g.pl?a=4prtwhfsvhllvmj2
Yachtshots: http://yachtshotsbvi.com/
