Sailing in the Spanish Virgin Islands
Back in 2016, I was in a flurry of searching for travel writing jobs. I got my current job right out of college in 2015 and I was there for about year until I started getting restless for travel writing. So, in the midst of my searching I stumbled upon an Eco Tour agency called Global Treks and Adventures. This group takes expedition trips around the world and publishes travel guides along the way. Part of me thought “JACKPOT” and the other part of me thought “is this a scam?”. I dug in and found that it was indeed not a scam and just as cool as I thought it was. I scrolled through their list of trips and found “Sailing in the Spanish Virgin Islands”. I’ve never been sailing and I’ve heard close to nothing about the Spanish Virgin Islands so I took a risk and applied. Things moved quickly after that- I was accepted, given a load of information, had to start saving money, and was introduced to the group I would spend a week with in an enclosed space in the middle of the Caribbean.
Fast forward to January 2017 where I got on my flight. I didn’t know what to expect from all of this so it just kind of felt like gliding through fog at this point. There was this moment that lasted about 2 minutes right before my flight landed in St. Thomas where I thought “What. are. you. doing. You’re about to get on a boat with people you don’t know SAILING to places you’ve never been which means you’ll have little to no phone service. You’ve convinced everyone including yourself that this was going to be amazing but what if it isn’t?”
And that was it. Wheels touched down and I dismissed it all. Didn’t matter anymore. I was here and had to be up for whatever this was going to bring me.
I was picked up with others at this one-roomed airport, had awkward small talk and was taken to our boat. Everyone arrived, we ate pizza, and started to get to know each other. We set sail the next morning getting very quick lessons on how to sail and learning the lingo. Our leisure 4-hour sail allowed us all to talk more and take turns steering. We were all becoming fast friends which was solidified by nightly rounds of Uno.
Each day was structured and make-it-up-as-you-go mixed together. The structure was the routine of the day. Get up, eat breakfast, snorkel, dry up & change, get on land, walk around/take photos/interview locals, grab lunch, more photos, back on the boat, shower (which was just a hose on the back of the boat), prepare & eat dinner, talk about rose+bud+thorns, Uno, and bed.
The make-it-up-as-you-go part is that when you’re researching and writing about the island you’re on that you don’t hardly know anything about… it’s hard to get a rhythm. Not everyone wants to talk to you or speaks English, you’re gathering all different types of info that you’re not sure will be useful for not, and you’re trying to find things that are interesting enough to be published.
One of my favorite stops we made was in Culebra at Sweet & Naughty Candy Shop. It was owned by a couple from Quebec who wanted to make a change in their lives and moved down to open a business that brought joy to locals and tourists by making candy and sweets. Hearing them talk about taking a leap to do something crazy was so inspiring. While they shared their story, we munched on their homemade gooey donuts. There were many moments like this where I felt affirmed in my decision to go on this trip.
It still feels like a dream sometimes. I learned more about the Spanish Virgin Islands and their history. I learned more about sailing. I learned how to strategically wait until almost the end of Uno to drop that Draw 4 and make your opponents mad. I learned about the Puerto Rican culture. I learned more about myself. In my head, this was testing my capability. If I could do this, I can do just about anything. It also helped too that I didn’t take a single dramamine on the entire trip. (I don’t know, just lucky I guess)
It’s experiences like this that gets me on my soap box about going and doing something new and adventurous. Get an education on a culture, travel by a different means of transportation, lean into parts of yourself that are unexplored.
I get asked if I would do something like this again. Totally. Risks do pay off sometimes and this one definitely did. You can now find the Spanish Virgin Islands by Global Treks & Adventures on Amazon. You’ll see my name in there a couple times :)
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
-Anthony Bourdain
