Alpha 4 & Charlie 3 Day 6: Doing Our Part To Give Back
written by Alpha/Charlie mate, Mike Harrington
August 12, 2017
Today was another truly awesome day, jam-packed with activities and lessons! We woke up at Diamond Cay on Jost Van Dyke and after a breakfast buffet, all boats headed to shore. We then had a lesson on mangroves, which are extremely fascinating trees which grow roots that stick out of the water so the tree can survive. We then did a big beach cleanup – all the boats against one another and we collected as much trash as we could find. The crews felt happy we’d done our part for the island wild life.
The morning wasn’t over yet! We all headed then to Spyglass, one of the catamarans of the Foxtrot and Sierra programs and did another lesson on sea turtles before all of the Foxtrot/Sierra program got in the water to try and tag some turtles. We watched them working from the boats and it was cool to see them in action. After, we had the chance to go tubing too – it was incredibly fast and a thrill for all!
We had grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch at Diamond Cay. In the afternoon, the Alpha and Charlie fleet all met up ashore at Sandy Cay, an amazing island, one of the most beautiful we’d seen thus far. This was where they filmed part of the Pirates of the Caribbean films and we got to walk around in the trees just like Captain Jack Sparrow. We played crab battles, enjoyed a short hike and played in the sea until it was time to go back to boats.
We moved the boats once more to Little Harbour, Jost Van Dyke and picked up a mooring ball for the night. After showers, we headed ashore to Sydney’s Peace & Love restaurant for an onshore social. There were shops for perusing island t-shirts and souvenirs, and plenty of students took up the opportunity to have their hair braided too.
We then all sat down to a delicious BBQ dinner, complete with a DJ. After enjoying the scrumptious delicacies, we all danced the night away to the sounds of reggae jams. When our feet couldn’t go on any longer, we retreated back to our home boats to power down from the fabulous day.
