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People celebrate Carnival on St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands in many different ways. Sure, most people go dancing in the streets wearing colorful costumes, or take part in the float parades with bands playing on flatbeds and choreographed routines, but for Carnival 2005 my boyfriend's family invited me to join them for a camping trip on a secluded beach, away from the noise and crowds.

The tents that lined the beach were of all sizes: large ones for the couples, medium-sized ones for the singles, and small tents for the children. My boyfriend Chris pulled his pickup truck onto the sand, and his six little cousins ran up shouting and screaming for his attention. As I opened my door, I heard the oldest boy shout,

"Chris! Chris! Set a shark line, please! Please...remember the shark you caught last time? It would be so cool to catch another one!"

"Yeah!" the rest of the kids chimed in, "Please!?"

Chris just laughed, and pointed into the back of his truck. Amongst the tent gear, sleeping bags, food, and supplies there was a bucket with rope, buoys, weights, and a large tackle box.

"I'll set the line if you kids set up our tent," Chris said.

"All right!" They yelled in unison, and they surged towards the truck, scrambling into the back to unpack everything and pitch the tent in the sand. Chris looked at me and smiled, and told me to grab the tackle box while he carried the rope, buoys, and weights.

His boat was a small 8-ft dinghy that had been dragged up onto the sand the weekend before. All it needed was a little 15 horsepower engine, and it got him where he needed to go and stayed afloat. He tossed the supplies into the boat and took the tackle box from me to put it in as well, and then told me to help him push the boat into the water. Before we could get in, a friend of his who was camping with us ran up with a plastic bag,

"Here's some chum!" he shouted, grinning, and dropped the bag into the boat. He ran back to the camp, and we hopped in.

It was late afternoon, and the sun wasn't quite setting, but it was getting close. Chris pulled the cable to start the engine up, and grabbed the bar to steer and accelerate us out onto the ocean. Two man-made jetties separated the beach from the ocean, protecting the beach from the waves beyond. It was a smooth ride at first, gliding over the water and looking at how its color changed as the sun moved lower in the sky, then we got past the jetties, and we hit the waves.

It wasn't so bad, the ocean spray in our faces, the taste of salt

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