Christina's Visit

A week ago, we had one visitor on board. Christina, our eighteen year old cousin, came to visit us in the BVI for her Spring Break. During her time aboard, we enjoyed many activities punctuated by what we considered her favorite phrase when planning,"It doesn't matter." She was up for any of the activities in the BVI. Whether it was "dry" paddle boarding, snorkeling at the Indians, or just swimming around the boat, it didn't matter to her which fun activity we chose.

In Great Harbor, Christina, Mama, and I went for a long paddle with just our hands. The problem was the paddle board was designed for only one person, so it was partially submerged on this adventure. This made it easy to send everyone into the water and capsize the board by accidentally-on-purpose leaning to one side. I got blamed for almost every capsize. In reality, I was responsible for around 75%. For me, the look on their faces when I capsized them the fiftieth time, made it my favorite paddle board experience.

Our adventure in Great Harbor started an entire war. For the rest of Christina's visit, the three cousins were constantly tipping one another. One of our favorite ways was perhaps the funniest. On the back of the board there is a line ideally situated to grab ahold of. If you could get this rope as someone else tried to paddle away, you could easily send him for a swim from ten feet distant. With a simple jerk from the guy in the water, the paddler feels like the board disappeared out from underneath him. Usually you would surface to some one laughing and sitting on the board. In the position of the tipped paddler, I would usually tip the board to get revenge, which meant we had ten minutes of constant capsizing ahead.

Christina's favorite place was the Indians. The Indians are four house-sized rocks sticking out of the water. They have attracted considerable amounts of coral and fish. Large fan corals, small sea turtles, fish of all colors and shapes, as well as a selection of urchins decorate the rocks. On one side there is a face that runs thirty feet down to the bottom. The best snorkeling is along there. Whether you wish to dive down or stay at the surface, a tangle of color meets your eyes. It is no surprise that this was her favorite as she had never snorkeled before and this is one of the best places I have ever snorkeled.

When swimming around the boat, we engaged in telling riddles, telling bad jokes, and watching Jack Tarzan Swing. I have never seen so many eye rolls as when Jack used his arsenal of jokes with Christina. If Jack could not make us laugh with his jokes, he certainly succeeded when Tarzan Swinging. The Tarzan Swing is a rope hanging from a pole stuck perpendicular to the boat. When you hold on, you go flying out over the water where you let go with a splash. By lifting his feet up above his head when swinging, Jack planned to do a dive. The noises he made were astonishing. I often heard something like this,"Whhoooaaaa gaaaaa-Splash."On top of that, he usually landed in the water with his hands half way between his waist and shoulders, legs bent at odd angles, and his dive not quite directly down. Occasionally, he would succeed in diving beautifully into the water, which elicited a round of congratulations instead of the more typical laughter.

Although Mama and Daddy joked that Christina must have been sent against her will to spend her vacation with 12 and 13 year old boys, we enjoyed her visit and I think she did too. It was fun to have someone new onboard to, "bring some sanity to the boat," as we often put it. When I think of her I will now think of the paddle board and tipping just cause.-Porter

Ed. Note: We have been in the USVI and the BVI for a few weeks now. Unfortunately, we have had limited wifi connectivity, which makes it difficult to upload blog posts and impossible to include photos. We are going to continue to enjoy exploring this part of the world and will upload photos and more blogs when we can. Thank you for your continued interest in Sila's blog; it means a lot to all four of us.