Waking up at 6:30 almost felt like sleeping in. After spending our last night on Vendovi, the tow groups got up feeling refreshed and reenergized. The previous night we had been uncertain about the sailing conditions, but that morning the weather was unexpectedly clear.

After delicious breakfast burritos, we collected small jellies and ctenophores at the dock, sang goodbye to the island caretakers and boarded the longboats once again. With our already exhausted muscles, we slowly rowed out to the sea and caught a convenient current. Moving slowly, the instructors took the opportunity to teach us triangulation, a method of locating your position on a navigational chart.

After mastering the art of triangulation (sort of), both crews raised their sails. While Townshend set up two sails, Bear rigged all three and soon the longboats were moving faster than ever before. With the wind’s help, both crews took turns napping in the sun and finding the triangulation along our course.

The only dilemma our groups faced was deciding on our destination: Boat Harbor or Saddlebag. There were pros and cons to both destinations. Boat Harbor was closer, had more space and was new and unexplored for our crews, but had no accessible bathroom and everyone would be forced to sleep on the boat. Saddlebag reminded us of traumatic memories, but there were better sleeping and bathroom conditions. The majority of us had voted for Saddlebag the night before, yet there was still a chance that space availability would force us to change courses and camp at Boat Harbor.

Luckily, Saddlebag appeared to have enough space and we were able to make new, drier memories on the island. That night, the entire camp sat around one last campfire and discussed what we appreciated and who we wanted to share the experience with. Afterwards, Ben, Camden, Nick and Miles spotted Bigfoot (Anna) in the dark. We went to sleep sad that our trip had come to an end, but satisfied with all that we had learned over the past four days.

-by Kalena DeLong and Devika Dwivedi