Hi All!
It’s been a while, so here’s an update:
Last session I was a mate and a medical officer, and now this session I’m a captain on a 50’ Beneteau called "Pine."
I have a great mate who works for Sail Caribbean year round and is a former captain, Rob Hadadorn. He has to travel to all the programs (I’m on the biggest program, Bravo), so he left a few days ago and he’s basically gone for the last week of this session which means that I have the boat to myself in the evenings (myself and 11 students that is). The boat itself has been giving me some problems with water pressure/loss, the engine not going into gear, and the fridge/freezer not working, but things are pretty good at the moment. I’ve actually learned so much while fixing the problems, that it's not so bad. I know these boats really well now inside and out.
I have the oldest students of the seven boats this session. They range from going into junior year of high school to going into sophomore year of college. I have 7 girls (one from Ireland) and 4 boys (two from Ireland), which is par for all the boats. For some reason Bravo always brings in many more girls than guys. The two boys who aren’t from Ireland are brothers from Pittsburgh and they are cousins with one of the boys from Ireland. So all the boys knew each other ahead of time. The kids on my boat are really awesome. They really want to learn, are considerate, and work hard. It’s a really great boat.
During the end of the first week of the program we have a chili cookoff competition. We serve chili and have a whole presentation to go along with it. My boat came up with this story of the Irish potato famine (we called it "The Legend of the Irish Leprechaun") and the kids each acted out nursery rhymes (little bo peep, jack and jill, etc.) where the characters were all having problems because of the famine. Finally, the chili leprechaun appeared to save the famine with his chili and they all lived happily ever after. It was an awesome presentation with crazy costumes and signs and our boat (and one other, Aigue Marine) won the chili cookoff!
Probably the most important/serious part of Sail Caribbean is docking. The boat carries so much mass and momentum that you can do some serious damage if you don't pull into the slip correctly. That aside, a few days after the chili cookoff, Pine decided to dock at Marina Bay, Tortola dressed as pirates. We managed to stay attentive and on task as the boat docked, but as soon as we were in the slip we let out a big "AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!" and blasted music from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean." All the other people at the marina were a little confused...
I’ve been working on my free diving a bit and I can now hold my breath, dive down about 40 feet (w/o flippers), hang out for about a minute, and then come back up. I can hold my breath with all this activity for about a minute and a half. I couldn’t even do it for 15 seconds when I first got here, so I've greatly improved! I’ve been doing a bunch of swim-throughs too, which are underwater tunnels. The longest one I’ve done is about 20 feet down, and then 40 feet long at Anegada. I did it on my birthday in fact, so it was awesome when got up the nerve to swim through a dark underwater tunnel and complete it.
Everthing is going really well. I still have one more session before I come home in a few weeks.
Hope all is well!
Huey
That's about it! See you all soon.
The Piners on the boat made great costumes, decorated the vine with leaves, and played jungle drums as the whole presentation went on. That clinched the olympic victory!
