Bravo 1, Charlie 1, Delta 1, Foxtrot 1, and Sierra 1 Day 6: Cooper Island

Day 6:

Students woke and stretched their sea-legs this morning as they were happy to be back  out on the water once again. As all mornings go, our breakfast crews wiped together a delightful spread and we all sat down, family-style, to enjoy the fruits of their labor. 

It wasn’t long before we were saying goodbye to Great Harbour and raising our sails heading for the beautiful Manchaniel Bay on Cooper Island. As winds were still a bit stronger than normal, students were able to practice their reefing skill once again. Boats made their way up the channel, throwing in some flawless tacks, before finally dropping their mainsail and furling in their jib sheets. Some vessels’ staff challenged their students to a mooring ball pick up with no assistance from staff! With ever watchful eyes, staff monitored as their protege’s set the stage to complete their first solo mooring ball pick up. A few boats were able to secure on the first try, others needed a second attempt but the pride glowed from all staff’s faces as they gave their crews a round of applause, hoots and hollers for completing the task at hand! With confidence’s lifted and daylight at its full force, crews headed in the water with a nice splash followed by everyones favorite time of day, lunch.

Following lunch, students were able to enjoy some down time to relax, catch up on some summer reading, and to do some water sporting! But, perhaps the BEST part of the afternoon was a fleet wide competition between the boats. Students were challenged to complete a number of tasks requested by their Program Director, Eliot Faust, and Fleet Captain, Adam Grant. One such challenge was to dress a staff member in as many items of clothing in 3 minutes before dignifying them to the staff boat to be counted. Some other challenges included presenting an interesting marine biology fact and coming up with a chant for their individual boat. But perhaps the crowd favorite challenge, was dressing their staff members up as characters. Notable characters who joined include:  Aladdin and Jasmine, some baseball players, a leprechaun with his rainbow and pot of gold, and Tarzan and Jane!

After bellies had recovered from too many laughs, it was time to wind down for the evening. Like clockwork showers, dinner, and boat meeting wrapped up our evening before some down time and lights out.