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Location: North Sound, Virgin Gorda, BVI

Despite being day seven aboard Ocean Star, it still seems but a wonderful dream waking up in the morning to the sensation of the boat gently rocking on the waves, the smell of sea salt, and the eleven other sleepy and slightly sunburnt faces of the shipmates. Regardless of the surrealist nature of our voyage, we woke up to a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and ate in anticipation of the busy day ahead of us. The day commenced with a long sail from Mountain Point to North Sound. This was an opportunity for us shipmates to practice some of the sailing skills we were taught, and I must say that I think we are catching on rather well! (Minus, of course, minor hiccups, such as my rather daft mistake of easing the mainsail sheet instead of pulling it in, whoops!) However, I was particularly proud of our efforts in performing a couple of drills. The crew surprised us all with an impromptu man overboard and a fire drill test, but of course, and in a smooth fashion, of course, we nailed them both! The climactic moment of our journey to North Sound was the raising of our fisherman sail, the king of all sails, and a bit of a challenge for us beginners. Just to make it clear, a fisherman’s sail kind of resembles a kite and is quite hard to raise when we are underway and the wind picks up. But, being the heroes that we are, we did it well. Ok, it was the 2nd or maybe even 3rd attempt, but still, its an achievement! When we finally reached Mountain Sound, we immediately hopped in the water and went snorkeling. It could not have turned out better because as soon as we jumped into the water, it started pouring down (now I know that you’ll think that I’m being sarcastic, and that would make sense because I am English, but I promise, I’m not!). The rain only added to the experience, as we all started giggling at the situation before proceeding to carry on with our snorkel. On returning to Ocean Star, we had dinner around the table and watched the most beautiful sunset, so it was the perfect way to end the day!