We were able to sleep in late Thursday, about 8:30. We were done with our water activities for the week and the last big thing for us to do was the beach clean up. We all headed to the teacher’s cabin for a quick breakfast and after, it was straight to the beach. We got to the beach and I was surprised how messy it was. It almost looked like a landfill with all the nets, ropes, bottles, caps, toothbrushes, you name it. For about an hour and 15 minutes, we went up and down the beach for a quarter of a mile cleaning up. While collecting trash, I was surprised to find a bulldozer washed up on the beach. Most of it was in tact, but the pieces that had fallen off were not far away from the main body. We made a pretty noticeable dent in the trash on the beach, but it was still nothing compared to all the miscellaneous things located everywhere else. After the beach clean up, we headed to the marina for lunch where we got our last good look at the Sea Dragon and Sea Monkey. We then headed back to Guavaberry and had a lot of free time. I threw the frisbee around, started packing, and hung out. I was disappointed that I couldn’t go in the water because it had Sea Needles (type of snail almost) which are painful and happen to be in packs of thousands. After the long period of downtime, we all got ready for the farewell dinner and met Glenn at the cattleguard. It was a quick drive to the restraunt, Mermaids, and it was in a great location right off the dock. There was another magnificent sunset and we saw a large group of Tarpon. I learned the phrase “bow to the king” from Jeff that night which means when you are fishing for Tarpon, “the sliver king”, and you have one on your line, you have to bow your line when they jump out of the water so the line won’t snap. We had a tasty barbecue dinner and watched the week video Casey put together. She did a great job, but I was a little disappointed the Sea Monkey wasn’t “reppin (representing)” in the video enough. We said our goodbyes to Jermey, Jessica, and Sara and thanked them for all the great work they did and fun times we had with them. We headed back to Guavaberry and packed up until we went to bed around 11. It was going to be an early morning, I had my alarm set for 3:45 A.M.
The “waves” sound rolled through the cabin at 3:45 declaring the start of our day. I got ready and double, maybe even triple checked, the cabin that I had everything. We met Glenn at the cattleguard at 4:45 and made our way down to the marina. Glenn was a great guy and had a lot of love for the island and everyone he met. We said our farewell to him and walked to the Sea Dragon to go to Tortola. Jeff and Andrea were the ones taking us over, but Casey was there to to say her goodbyes and then go run around the island as she always does every morning. It was a nice boat-ride over to Tortola and we were able to catch a glimpse of the sun coming over the clouds which may have been forming into Tropical Storm Bertha. We then said our goodbyes to Jeff and Andrea and made our way to the airport. We checked in and got through security and slept or tried to sleep until the Seaborne airplane arrived. I say “try to sleep” because there was a screaming/crying boy who wouldn’t stop. We boarded the Seaborne plane, slept through the flight, and made it to San Juan. We had to go through customs and took a little detour since we got lost, but it all worked out and we got to our gate with 2 hours to spare. We boarded our plane back home to Dallas and it was around a 4 and a half hour flight. I was able to sleep through most of it, but as I wrote my last blog, I recalled all the memories I made throughout the course of the trip and realized how much fun I had. I truly think a piece of me was left in Virgin Gorda and I know I will be able to tell everyone about the experience I had down there. It was a once in a lifetime trip I thoroughly enjoyed and will constantly be thinking about. Thank you God for everything, You made a truly amazing world.
