Sailing Gli Gli

Author: Sam T.
Location: Trellis Bay, Tortola
An extra hour of sleep is enough to make any day better and it was defiantly a fabulous way to start off today. After a leisurely 7:30 am wake-up, we sat through a nice lazy breakfast of oatmeal and fresh fruit. Once clean up was done and everything was put away, we began dinghy training, a process everyone had been looking forward to since day one. After a quick briefing, we sat out in the three dinghies to demonstrate our skills. Everyone passed with flying colors. Now when we go ashore, it is a race to scramble into the boats, as each shipmate wants to drive. After an hour of dozing on the deck, soaking up the sun and drying off, we all piled into the dinghies to go ashore for the day's project: sailing in a traditional wooden canoe, Gli Gli, with Aragorn. When we first arrived, we sprawled on the beach to eat lunch (PBandJ, tuna) and explored a little. A good 20 minutes was spent attempting to crack open a coconut. We finally succeeded and feasted on coconut juice as well as the coconut meat. It was delicious. A BBC special on the history of Gli Gli followed, which was enough to get everyone excited and pumped for the sail. We pushed, tugged and lugged the 3-ton boat into the ocean. Once the mast and sail were propped up, we were off! Lets just say it was an experience and a half; a constant game of teeter-toter as we fought to stay balanced by throwing our weight across the boat. With plenty of tacking and some towing, we reached our destination, which was a small beach. Aragorn, one of the originators of the boat building project, guided us to the sight of an ancient village, where only shards remained. Along the way, we discovered the joys of ginps and tamarind, two island fruits that we enjoyed right off the trees. The return trip was quite the adventure. Before we were even around the point, Aragorn blew his horn, which only trumpeted disaster. Less than a minute later a gust of wind off the mountain hit the sail while we were unprepared for only the second time in Gli Gli's fifteen year history, it capsized! Between busts of hysterical laughter and frustration, we spent an hour righting the boat with the help of some resident locals and other sailors. We finally sailed back to the dock, thanked Aragorn profusely, and hopped back into the dinghies. A quick shower and dinner was next. A final treat was watching some remoras eating the scraps from dinner. Quite the crazy day! Goodnight!

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