The Final Stretch-July 8

When all was said and done, these were the last brave words of the Belle's 'crab-trip one' pirate crew:

JULY 8, 2008
"Yesterday was our navigation finals. We woke up at 6:30 to get on the boat and starboards began their finals after leaving the harbor. After some touble in the beginning with triangulation starboars FINALLY reached their destination withing 30 seconds of the allowed time. We hit some rough wavers and had to bring squirtle [our pirate turtle} up from the cabin to avoid another game of 'find the turtle.' Ports then began their finals. They had a rocky start because Mustang Morgan messed up on finding their electronic fixer (her words not ours) but then they got to the correct buoy within 2 minutes of the allowed time.

Next we chugged over to Soloman's Island where we at Papa John's Pizza. We also gave each and every person their personal handshake [so theoretically 144 handshakes between 12 kiddos family and fans!] and got lost on the car to our [last] campsite. We sang 'Complicated' and 'Fidelity' the whole way there and had a great time bouncing along offroad and up and down hills. As Kimmi Page said 'It felt like a Disney ride' {HHJ thinks Pirates of the Chesapeake-an] We ended the night with a campfire and roasting marshmallows. We performed the 'Crab Dance' while Jackie Kahan danced and sang to traditional bhangra!

This morning 7/8 we looked for fossils at 6AM. Anna Valkyrie found a shark's tooth nd everyone had a great time. We are going to the museum now to have someone identify them. This was an amazing trip anmd we all grew closer together through it."