February 01

And then there were 16... Austen left yesterday morning - voluntarily chose to leave. His reason was emotional stress but I suspect bigger issues. The group was pretty shocked including myself. It really made me realize that this trip is not for everyone.
We traveled for the first time yesterday, paddling for 2.5 hours and about six nautical miles. It was a tough but very fun day. Taggart was an awesome boat partner. Our only problem was too much power - booyah! We had a layover day today because of rough weather. It's 3:45 pm and the sun has been out for a whole hour. What a treat. This is one beautiful place - turquoise water and green mountainous islands.
I switched cook groups to Jack and Alex. It's already been super fun and they have opened up a lot. I'm learning tons from these people and for the first time I'm feeling some personal growth.
We learned how to read the weather and we learned about the tides. We also chose instructor mentors: I chose Karin, the Brazilian hoss. She is the definition of an amazon woman (literally and figuratively). We'll see what's in store for tomorrow.