Location: Almerimar, Spain
Hello, wonderful people!
What a day of pure epicness, to say the least. Comradery, competition, and cleaning ninjas arose from the many quests of today. We kicked off the morning with our leadership challenge course in our watch teams. This involved two separate activities: triangle tag and a scavenger hunt across Almerimar. Now, our knights had many dragons to conquer, bushes to jump over and into, and riddles to solve. Triangle tag involves capturing the flag-esque principles, including procuring treasures and running for dear life away from your peers with them. My favorite tactics of the day would be Erik’s and Miles Anteloupe’s hedge jumping abilities and Caroline’s double head first dive to hide into a bush for almost 20 minutes (her treasure was a mannequin head). After running around the beach silly and alienating many passersby, we expanded our horizons to travel around in packs, jogging through the whole city on our scavenger hunt quest.
This involved many awesome interactions, including me scaring the old British thrift store lady I had bought a dress from days earlier by informing her she, in fact, was a part of our scavenger hunt (she was not). Alas, Mac was awaiting our arrival behind the store, not in it. Most teams chose to keep a brisk jog to go for gold, but my watch team, T-dubs (World Wide Watch), instead chose to keep morale high on quests by making provision stops and maintaining a swift strolling pace. Other high notes of the scavenger hunt would involve Gabby’s fierce leadership style and Gordon’s choosing to take on one challenge by carrying three of his teammates at once across hot lava.
After a return for a delightful lunch made by our Head chef Greta and co, we got into Messy Boat Appreciation, which involves some of the more daunting cleaning tasks on the boat, including so many holes, crevices, and bilges any of us had ever explored. While I was a part of the topside team that scrubbed the outside of the boat. Our amazing team hopped in Noppidome and had the best time listening to funky tunes scrubbing away. A special moment was shared at the end, where we each scrubbed and cleaned a single letter of ARGO at the Stern.
Del and Hilary recounted her experience for your better understanding: in the head bilge, she scooped water out with her toes and a cup for upwards of four hours and found enlightenment in Bilge Rat culture. The word on the street is the character development of such experiences is unmatched. Post Bilge Rat transformation, we had the most delicious dinner that included a diverse spread that included, for the first time on the voyage, fresh spinach salad! (we usually only have it frozen).
Now it’s time for the utmost highlight of my day. The slack jaw dance battle between Watch teams 1 and 2 for victory and team pride. The photos I have provided do no justice to how insane this was. There were one one-on-one elimination rounds and a final dance-off shoutout to some of my favorite performances by Joe, Calum, Miles, and Sean, who busted moves I had never witnessed before nevertheless by them. All in all an active day for sure. Sweet dreams for the whole crew.
Lots of Love
Calli <3