Location: Tobago Cays, St Vincent
This morning, after a hearty breakfast of Froot Loops and milk, the crew of Vela was taken to a small uninhabited island and hunted for sport. Those of us who survived the culling was given the rest of the morning to explore the island and look for turtles off of its coast. The island was a harsh, hostile environment filled with cactus spikes and large iguanas. While the lizards may defend their territory and ward off potential invaders, the turtles welcomed us into their home with open flippers and had no qualms with us floating above them and watching them eat.
When we returned to the boat, we were greeted with a wonderful, chili-inspired meal prepared for us personally by our ship’s Captain. To his credit, it was much better than people were making it out to be. that being said, there’s a reason he’s the Captain and not a chef. Perhaps inspired by lunch, a few of Vela’s crew decided they were fed up with the ships cooking and looked to the local cuisine to satisfy their hunger. Thankfully, there was a nice man named Willy who swung by with a skiff and offered to bring some BBQ for the crew.
Between lunch and dinner, many of us had free time while some people took their final nav-master exam. We, of course, used this time wisely and thought very hard about studying before goofing off or napping. We also had to undergo some practice scenarios for our emergency first responder certification. While it is true that we all did fail these scenarios, leaving no one living at the end of the practice session, we did learn a valuable lesson, so in the end, the only true failures were the actors who couldn’t convincingly play dead for 10 mins. For dinner, our fearless Captain prepared some delicious burgers for us, which has appeared, to some. to have recovered some of his credibility as a chef. When the sunset and the moon rose, I led our humble crew in a beautiful rendition of the timeless classic Werewolf Bar-Mitzvah to end the day. Needless to say, we have all been enjoying the Caribbean so far, and we’re very excited to see what it has to offer next.
Yours Truly, Joe
Picture 1: Sav and Celia studying hard
Picture 2: Willy and his boat, Free Willy
Picture 3: The greatest singer-songwriters of this generation
Picture 4: Our swim spot for the day