Day 1 at Croton point

After experiencing the joys and wonders of Verplank, we were off again to sail the fair winds and the following sea. Not knowing that their wasn't going to be any winds we had to row the entire way. The captain on Tijger was Dwight because he had problems the day before when he was supposed to be captain. His instructors that were on Tijger decided to give him another chance. The crew members on Tijger felt disoriented although everyone on board did what they had to do. Know one was communicating so things could have been better. On Onrust the captain was Ashley. She had a hard time getting through to Juan. He was mad because she kept on asking him to get into the boat early but only thinking of himself he wanted to hang out with his compadres on Tijger. He kept on complaining about how he wanted to go home because he was tired of his crew members. So he didn't take anyone on. Knowing that Ashley was going to get in trouble with the instructors he kept on thinking of himself. So it was like that Onrust had four crew members instead of five. But Onrust took the challenge and handled it with pride. When we finally arrived at Croton Point Park, Onrust had to take down their sail than had a little meeting. At that point, the crew were getting really tired. During this meeting we brought up issues that were bothering us all day. Ashley decided to be the bad guy and asked Juan why he was acting this way. His only response was "leave me alone" or "don't talk to me". They really tried but we don't think they got to him. When we finally got to shore we had lunch which was pita bread with cheese, lettuce , mayo,cucumbers with Erin's yogurt dip with pretzels. Finally Tijger decides to come and join us. We decided to go for a swim in the forbidden area.

Then finally the time had come for us to separate from each other for twenty-two hours. It was time to come together with nature as one, to leave our troubles behind and welcome the adventure and challenges that life had in stored for us. We couldn't take much with us, only thing we could have with us was dry and warm clothes, sleeping bag with sleep sheet and a plastic tarp to serve as a protection in case it rain. For food we had a plain bagel with an orange and a bottle of water. Nobody wanted to do this but we did it. The instructors gave us about two minutes to say goodbye and everyone acted like it was the end of the trip and that we weren't going to see each other after the solo. So finally the Tijger and Onrust started their solos. We were separated a couple of feet from each other. That made it so tempting to talk to each other. Everyone lasted pretty long except for Erika and Julian they only lasted for a half hour. Beside those two everyone lasted about five hours which they spent mostly sleeping.

While Kelly was sleeping the instructors saw a packs of skunks sneaking up through the gutter and started to laugh. They were watching to see if she was going to react to the skunks but she didn't. Then at about 11:00 p.m., Julian went over to the instructors and complained about the skunks. They told him that their was one on Kelly and his answer was "so". Then Erika and Julian just happened to be both going to the bathroom at the same time. They saw the skunks crawling around Ashley's head and all of a sudden you heard screaming. They were running away for their lives like someone or something was trying to kill them. Then Ashley got up and felt something on her lips. It was a big bump on them. At first she thought that it was little rabbits running around. Then Julian came back and told her that it wasn't rabbits but in fact it skunks running around she went ballistic. Ashley was thinking that the skunks had bit her lips. She wanted to kill every skunk she had so but she couldn't because she was too scared. Then we saw Dominique and Matthew walking towards her. They talk a little while and then went over to Vanessa. So it was Erika, Julian, Vanessa Dominique, Ashley, and Matthew all breaking solo together. But technically we weren't breaking solo because no one wanted to have skunks sleeping on top of them. Kelly and Jesus was sleeping at their position. Kelly couldn't be with us because the instructors put her right next to the boats. Jesus was right by us but he was to busy in cloud9.

We all took turns and watched for skunks for about 15 minutes to about half hour. Dominique had the first watch. Every time he would see one, everyone would wake up. Proper sleep that night was not in the question.

Day 2 at Croton point

When the clock strike 12, we had known that this was the second day of solo. We were still awake but not like before. We were struggling to keep our eyes open. The skunks started disappearing and the ground hogs started to appear. It had seem that the ground hogs had ordered the skunks to leave. Every time we saw a skunk their would be a ground hog right behind it ready to tear it to pieces. It was like the ground hog was our protector for that night. Everyone probably spent the whole entire morning and afternoon sleeping. Who wouldn't after the night we had last night.

It was a long and dragged solo but we did it. Well not technically but the instructors believed that we had completed it. About 3:00 Sarai played her flute. That was the signal that solo was over. When everyone arrived the instructors had a little surprise for us. It was a barbeque. We had hamburger, corn on a cube. For drinks we had mountain dew, Dr.Pepper and sprite. It felt like heaven to us. But before we ate we had a little lunch chow circle. We had realized that Dwight and Juan was missing. Then Trevor had told us that they had left the course on their own decision. They weren't kick off. Most of us was happy that they had left but when push come to shove a piece of the circle was missing.

After eating we had to do community service. This service was to the beach. We had to pick up garbage around the park. Erin had a idea to make the community service more interesting. she called it peddile. you were split into teams . the person who saw tash on the ground would called peddiddle and their partner would have to pick up the garbage. Ffor that day we did really got job that day we could actually saw that we did something good for that day.

Everyone except Ashley,Erika and Kelly had climbed the tree. Coyotee was with us when all the other instructors disappear. she told us that to wait and hear the whitlse ten time and ten times and then come and find them. so we waited and waited untill we waited for the whistle. when we finally got to the top of the hill we saw all instructors including coyotee up in two line half and half with bow ties on and sun glasses. it was so funny . After eveveryone arrived Kelly told us that one by one we had to step up in front of them while they tickle us with a feather and stok a berry in our mouth. they called this the inductry to our final. after all this took place they told us that the force is with us.

when everything was done. we had to cook dinner. Kelly was cooking when a skunk came and went into the salad everyone wennt balistic. we all ran fast. that afternoon was very hectic. but we did it. we even did something new. we had even circle and chow circle whil we were eating and whil the instructors were gettying rady to sleep. During our anchor meeting Trevor gave us new information. this new information was that Juan and Dwight had talk to Jake and wanted to come to the computer course with us. he told us not to make a decision now but to sleep on it and in the morning we would mke a decision. so we did .,

That how the night ended!!