Location: Sandy Spit, BVI
It could not have been a more perfect day to be skipper. Our finals were over, and the anticipation that precedes any long vacation break, but especially summer, was giving the day a nostalgic, celebratory feeling. It began with a dive, as all great days do, of a nearby barge that had sunk in the bay. There was another barge moored above it so that the one underwater could have been a shadow of the one on the surface. I saw my favorite fish on the dive, the drumfish, which was definitely a highlight.
Everyone relaxed as the second group dove, and when they came back, we did a quick, easy passage prep for our afternoon sail. It was easy to see how much we’d learned over these past two months, and the things that may have taken us an hour took a third of that time. With sail covers off and booms topped, we headed out of the bay and raised our sails, jibing back and forth up the Sir Francis Drake Channel to Sandy Spit. Everyone stayed on deck to enjoy our last sail and each other’s company, as well as put into use the arsenal of squirt guns that had accumulated on the ship. Despite the hard work and focus it took to be jibing so often, everyone did a great job working together and truly enjoying one of our last journeys on Ocean Star.
The last part of the day involved a change of plans, and after many appeals to the staff about our great idea, movie night transformed into bonfire night on the beach of Sandy Spit. We roasted potatoes and marshmallows in the fire and relaxed as the sun went down and the stars came out. Something about a campfire gets people talking, and it was wonderful to sit with all of the people I’d gotten to know over the past few months and watch the fire and the constellations and talk about whatever it was we hadn’t already talked about in all our time together. The day couldn’t have worked out better, and as I crawled into my bunk smelling of campfire and still warm from a day in the sun, it was with absolute contentment that I fell asleep, already missing these long days on the islands.