Winter Ambassador Voyage: Day 5

Dec 31, 2025:

We started off our day with quiche for breakfast. Then, we prepped to go ashore and packed all our lunches and snorkel gear ready before hopping in the small boats to bring us ashore. Once on the beach, we started our walk through the mangroves, where we saw wild flamingos, which was exciting because we had never seen them in the wild before, and ironically, because they were not at Flamenco beach. Then we stopped at Annaberg Sugar Plantation at Virgin Islands National Park. Quinn and Daniel ate half their lunches, and Sophia got tea from a friend of the park and read all signs about the local history. A lot of the enslaved people were artisans who used the building of the plantation to express themselves using coral to build many of the structures. Many enslaved people tried to escape to the BVI’s but many did not make it. After all the learning, we headed down towards the beach for snorkeling. Down at the beach, Eleanor scared Quinn and Daniel while snorkeling. Many students enjoyed snorkeling and some of the creatures spotted included stingrays, sea turtles, sea cucumbers, eels, and many varieties of fish! During all of this fun, a nasty mongoose came by and stole Enzo’s food, and Maddy had to bravely fight it off. Quinn and Daniel befriended a wasp named Johnathan. At first we were like “Yo Johnathan, cool your jets,” and then we were like “Maybe Johnathan kinda chill.” Back at the boat after a fun day of snorkeling, we hauled anchor so that we could sail to Coral Bay, with Sophia steering the boat at the helm a good portion of the way. While she was doing this, Quinn and Daniel had some greuling chain flaking. For supper we ate the Mahi we caught the other day. Later on tonight, we shall begin Swizzle, and then new years eve activities.

*Hailey wants everyone to know she lost her hairbrush to the bilge this morning.