I rose early on the fourth day. In fact, I was the first one up. It was nice to be on the quiet boat early in the morning. The thing about being stuck on a boat with people is that you're, well, stuck on a boat with people. It's hard to get away, to get a break. But as it happens, if you're the first one up, you get a break.
Eventually the rest of the crew awoke, and sampled what I call coffee (which is far stronger than what some of our other crew called coffee). Even T had a mug, although I think it was more milk than coffee.
Our rigging, before raising the sails
We kept seeing this pirate ship looking craft. As best as we could figure, it was the next novelty cruise idea. "Been on a Carnival cruise that wasn't your cup of tea? Try our pirate cruise instead!" It was great to see a real, multi-masted sailing ship though, rather than just fancy yachts and single-masted cruisers like ours.
It was a fairly sizable vessel!
Once we got underway, we headed into the Drake Channel and set our sights on the Dogs, a group of three islands in the middle of the Channel, individually named Great Dog, George Dog, and West Dog. Once we got there, we passed by the Dogs on our port and began tacking our way between Necker Island and Prickly Pear Island, both of which are owned by Sir Richard Branson. You can see his residence, humbly titled the Great House, on the highest spot on the island.
(Incidentally, I think I forgot to mention that we passed by St. John's on our ferry trip from St. Thomas to Tortola. On the north side of the island, the side we passed by, is Cinnamon Bay. Anyone remember the line from that Kenny Chesney song, "I watched boats sail in and out of Cinnamon Bay"? I didn't look for it, but he used to have a house there. I think I remember hearing that he sold it.)
Learning to sail
We tucked in for the evening at Bitter End, and thought we made the smart choice by heading to land to pay a few bucks for a real shower. Turns out, no. The resort apparently decided to stop maintaining these particular showers, and the wiser (and probably easier and definitely more sanitary) choice would have been to take a cramped boat shower.
A benefit of the long walk around at the Bitter End Yacht Club, though, was just that: walking. Moving. We had all started noticing that our appendages were getting swollen from being on the boat all the time. It was hard to get rings on and off, and shoes (on the rare occasions that you got around to wearing them) felt a little tighter.
We grilled on the boat that night for dinner. Chicken and veggies, which were quite delicious. Also, lots more drinking. Pattern?
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