Follow Our Journey: Bravo, Charlie, Foxtrot & Sierra

Written by Sarah H., student on Sonsbeek

Mega fleet woke up today in Sunny, or rainy in this case, Jost Van Dyke. After resting from our night of dancing, we made a delicious breakfast of pancakes with berries and whipped cream. Today was a very special day in Sail Caribbean program history, Challenge Day! On Challenge Day, the students are in charge of staying on schedule, sailing and keeping the boat in order. To make it even more of a challenge, campers are only allowed to ask staff 3 questions (safety concerns aside) the entire day and trust me when I say that any question counts. The lovely Sonsbeek used all three questions before 8 am with the first being “Has Challenge Day started yet?” The skipper of the day, mate, and navigator from each boat all met on staff boat at 8 am for a navigation briefing. Mega fleet needed to unmoor from Little Harbour and navigate to Sandy Cay, where boats would pick up another mooring ball, anchor, or raft up next to each other.

From there, another Sail Caribbean tradition was set to begin, the Olympics! Boat against boat, friend against friend, the Olympics made tensions rise in a fun and competitive way. Each boat designed a flag, attaching them to oars or boat hooks to proudly display on the beach of Sandy Cay. Activities include tug of war, synchorized swimming, a sand sculpture contest, and “dizzy fender,” a relay race in which you run with flippers and a snorkel mask on, spin around a fender two times and then run back to your team.

Everyone left smiling with a little extra sand in their swimsuits, and more bonded to their fellow team members. We headed back to boats and skippers rangled their crew to make lunch and do pre-departure checks before our first indepedennt sail to Sopper’s Hole. We worked as a team to succesfully sail to Sopper’s and pick up a mooring ball.

We then went to shore for some time to check out the town. Cute boutiques were entertaining to campers, but the two story grocery store definitely drew in the largest crowd of campers for sweet treats and sodas. Others also chose to sit outside at the restaurant and order fun drinks or a bite to eat. Dinner of pasta with meat sauce and ocean showers followed. Boats had their nightly meeting and powered down at 9 pm to get a good night of rest before the next day.