Early Alpha, Early Foxtrot & Early Sierra Day 1: We have arrived!
written by Social Media Coordinator, Ryan Smith
June 9, 2017
All our team members were moving about extra exhilarated today, preparing for our first teen arrivals day of the season! Although the day can be rather long and tiring for our traveling teens, at the end of the day, it’s almost palpable that it is the beginning of something special. Myself, Christian, an Operations staff member, Paul, one of our Foxtrot and Sierra mates, and Graf, one of our Alpha mates headed over bright and early to the St Thomas airport via a beautiful and sunny ferry ride. We had a few students join us by various methods throughout the day as well, even by sea plane (!), but the majority of our students arrived in waves of flights to the USVIs.
Finally in the hands of our excited (overly…) staff, students collected their baggage and were led by staff in two groups (one in the earlier afternoon and one in the later parts of the day) back to Hodges Creek Marina on Tortola. My later group’s ferry ride definitely had the highlight of a ferry ride through the islands backlit by a Caribbean sunset, already mesmerized by the place they will call home for the next two weeks
When we were altogether back at base, students were given their boat placements and were eager to get off their feet and settle in, meeting their crewmates along the way. It wasn’t long before we all got to enjoy a delicious meal of chicken, rice and ‘slaw, freely devouring it from the cockpits of our new homes, among new friends.
After taking some refreshing shore showers, each boat’s crew held their first boat meeting within their yacht’s salon. During each boat meeting, crews got acquainted with each other and had brief introductions to different aspects of the program, such as the roles on the duty roster and ship’s logs. After wrapping up the meeting, students were quick to relish in the opportunity to rest up from a long day, and in anticipation of leaving the docks the follow morning. Look forward to the crews’ boat photos prior to leaving docks in the next trip update for Day 2, or have an early look for yourself by checking out our Sail Caribbean Facebook page!
