Traveling to Europe: UKSA and the overnight ferry to France on July 9

Today was another fun day of watersports...and another nice day of weather! I asked Jezz, one of the guys who works there, about the weather on the Isle of Wight. He said it's usually overcast or raining...and he was telling me what great weather it was while we were there. I actually got hot in my wetsuit!

Today's activities were kayaking and dinghy sailing. I don't think I said yesterday, but each group did both activities...one in the morning and the opposite after lunch.

Kayaking was a blast! We had a little lesson on how to hold the paddle and how to paddle in sync...plus some other fundamentals. Then we were off...we went awhile, then they had us all hook up together - everyone holding the canoes on either side of them - and one by one, you had to stand up in your kayak, say your name, and some interesting fact about yourself. This was to help with learning to balance. No one fell in! We went a little farther, then stopped for another game...this was paddling around, and playing rock-paper-scissors, to go up a type of food chain - tadpole to frog to chicken to giraffe - to Justin Bieber to UKSA Instructor! Doesn't make sense, right? It was fun, though. Off we paddled some more..then each pair had to stand up in their kayaks and try to make the other person in the kayak fall out...of course, both would fall out because the kayaks usually went upside down. Kayaking was a lot of fun!

The dinghy sailing was 2 per sailboat...and they went out and learned how to operate those. I didn't do it, but heard from the group that it was 'the best!' However, that's how some described the kayaking...and how a few, a very few, described windsurfing. That seemed to be the hardest of the four.

After the water sports were finished, and dinner was completed, all but 6 delegates and 1 leader, walked back into town. They wanted some 'food,' (translation: junk food...cookies...ice cream, candy, cokes, etc.) I bet a third of the delegation each bought their own pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and ate the entire thing as we walked back. I won't say who...but 2 boys together spent 40 euro on 'stuff'! 3 bags full!

They were on cloud 9!

About 7:30 p.m., a boat picked us up and took us to Portsmouth where we then loaded a coach for a 5-10 minute drive to the Portsmouth International Dock! There, we loaded our overnight ferry to take us to France! We were in cabins, four to a room....cozy!