First Day Out
Location: Savannah Bay, Virgin Gorda
Today has been a long, hot, and sunny day, but it has also been an excellent day. We awoke early this morning for swim tests and pancakes, then stayed in West End until noon to discuss policies and do an introduction to safe line handling onboard. Finally, after a sweaty morning onshore, we were ready to leave, and at 12:15, cast off our dock lines and were underway. On the trip up to Savannah Bay, we practiced setting and striking the sails, and this new group of shipmates, with less than 24 hours under their belts, excelled, getting all the sails up well and safely. We dropped sail as we arrived outside the reef in Savannah Bay and motored in through the narrow entrance into the deep water behind it, and by 4:00, all the shipmates were swimming in the beautiful blue waters of the Caribbean. Our 20-day trip this summer was exceptionally excellent, and from today, I have every reason to believe that this trip is going to be just as good.