Today on Beau Budd, everyone woke up on a mooring ball at The Bight on Norman Island. An early wake-up at 6:30 led to a sleepy and quiet breakfast buffet. We enjoyed bagels, cereal, and yogurt along with various jellies and spreads. The food helped raise everyone’s spirits and gave us the energy to head ashore for the morning’s activity.
Today was “Challenge Day,” where we were responsible for ensuring the boat followed the day’s schedule without assistance from leadership. We were allotted three questions for help throughout the day, which we never even used!
We all shuttled in the dinghy to the island to hike up to the helipad. It was a short and steep hike over a rocky walkway with a breathtaking view. We admired the water and scenery before taking pictures and playing some fun games together.
On the hike back down to the beach, we were surprised by a simulated drill from leadership: one student had “fallen and broken her ankle,” and another had “gone into shock” from witnessing the incident. We all split up responsibilities to assist the students in distress, including putting a splint on the ankle and helping her down the rest of the terrain. For the other student, we used an oxygen tank to help regulate his breathing and calm him enough to get him safely to the bottom. Once we made it back to the beach, we sat together and discussed Sail Caribbean’s staff policies, which clearly outlined expectations and gave us a chance to ask any questions we had.
After a full and hot morning, we all met back on our boats to enjoy a great lunch of hot dogs. We were lucky to have two bags of ice delivered to the boat, so everyone got some well-deserved cold water. After a group effort to clean up, we gathered for a med-anchoring lesson from Sarah and Hannah. Our Skipper for the day, Grace, got everyone into position to drop our mooring ball and set sail to Little Harbour. The trip wasn’t far, so we got our sails up with ease and enjoyed sailing on a beautiful day.
Once we made it to the harbour, we took down our sails and got ready to med-anchor. It took a couple of attempts, but we managed to get our anchor down in a gorgeous spot. We had to tie three dock lines together to attach to the rocks on land! We got help from leadership, and Lily swam in the water to attach our line for us.
A successful anchoring called for a short group swim in our beautiful new location. We all enjoyed snorkeling around the boat while waiting for the Colgate sailboat to come and raft up with us. Once the boat arrived, six members of our crew hopped on to go on an adventure. For a few of the girls, it was their first time on a monohull boat that heels over and maneuvers like that — they came back so joyful about their newfound love of sailing. The rest of the crew swam and relaxed on the boat while waiting for their return.
Once everyone was back on board, we all showered in the sea and got ready to shuttle over to the staff boat, Mile High, for our staff meeting. We piled onto the bow of their boat and discussed any boat, medical, or safety issues that had occurred during the day. We all shared a moment of appreciation for the day, then headed back to our boat to enjoy dinner.
Bronte and Charlotte had stayed back to cook fried rice, and it smelled amazing as we pulled up to the boat. We all grabbed a bowl and headed to the bow to eat together and watch the beautiful sunset. After dinner, we cleaned up, scrubbed the decks, and tidied the boat. We spent the rest of the night sharing stories and laughing loudly.
We can’t believe staff training is almost over, but we’re so stoked to have campers joining our boats soon!
