What Say is it Again?
Location: Solomon Sea
My day started out at 12 AM to watch. Well, technically, it started at 11:30 PM yesterday when Julian woke me up to watch, but it basically started at 12. After being woken up twice (oops), I stumbled up the companionway and onto the deck to be greeted by my watch team (watch team blue/3 on top!), and I prepared for our four hours of watch in the middle of the night. 12-4AM watch is by far my favorite time to have watch; however, today I was exhausted. Nonetheless, I ripped the first boatie (conducted the first boat check) and watch had begun. After about 30 minutes of talking with Skye and Holland, Jack, one of our watch team leaders, put on a podcast recorded by a former CIA whistleblower. The group was immediately locked in on this JBL speaker sitting in the middle of our half circle, just listening to the man talk about his time in the aftermath of 9/11. It was so interesting! Finally, the podcast had ended, and we had 15 minutes left to watch. By this point, watch team 1 had come to relieve us, and we sang happy birthday to Noelle, who just turned 20 (yay!). Soon after, we finally got to go to bed until lunch.
I woke back up to rustling above me in the 6-stack (perks of being the bottom bunk) around 8 AM and then proceeded to lie there for a couple of hours, begging to fall back asleep as everyone else on the boat does. Sleep is precious on Argo, and I bet everyone can back me up on that. Did I get the sleep I wanted? No. So I got up and started getting ready for the day. Wake-ups for everyone else consisted of me blaring the main Pirates of the Caribbean song and yelling at everyone to wake up for lunch as we sail through one of the seven seas. Some people were not too happy with my wake-up choices, but I definitely am! Lunch today was delicious! It was a pasta salad made by Rachel and her sous chefs, Jen and Alyssa. During lunch, a couple of announcements were made, and the birthday tiara and sash were given to Noelle for her special day.
Clean up was right after. Everyone got straight to work cleaning in their job areas before Seamanship class. Since we finished NavMaster yesterday, today was a much-needed review day. I sat next to Rhianna and Kaya as we listened to Charlie review everything we had learned. He has done a great job teaching us, and we all know it’s our turn to take what we have learned and study hard for the exam. After studying for Navmaster, I left the salon and headed to my bed to rest a little bit before dinner. My rest included watching part of a Harry Potter movie and chatting with my middle bunkmate, Sadie. When I left the 6-stack for dinner, people were still studying or writing their Marine Bio papers (so you can see we do a lot of learning on the Argo). Also, during this time, Julian achieved his helm-sona, so that's amazing! “Hi," way to Helm"
Finally, we had dinner, which was taco bowls, once again made by our three amazing chefs, and they were so yummy! I always love meal times during passage, not just because I get to eat yummy food, but because they are always different. The days can blend together on passage, but meal times normally consist of a different meal, and you are never sitting in the same spot, with the same people, or talking about the same things. I love it. For example, today, the people around me were guessing how many siblings people had and what genders they were. I guessed Rachel correctly, but was sadly off on Shane. Some other amazing conversations I’ve had were with Emma about family and friends, and with Nacho about the Camino de Santiago. Soon after that, the cake was brought out, and we sang to Noelle for her birthday. The squeeze question of the day was, you are on a road trip, where are you going, who are you with, and what are you eating? All the answers were pretty amazing in my opinion.
At this point, the day isn't over for me yet as I still have 8-12 watch, but I am excited for my daily hug from Jen and to share some canned pineapple while talking about swimming with the fish with Rhianna (she actually just came into the charthouse with the pineapple, yay!). I am also pumped for my daily ramen, which I will hopefully have during the watch.
To my family: I love all of you and miss you guys. And specifically to Jenson: I don't know exactly when wrestling nationals are, but I am rooting for you. I know you will do great. To my other brothers, Jake and Jace, I hope summer is going amazingly, and you are enjoying your much-needed free time.
To my friends and Alex, I also love all of you lots and cannot wait to tell you all about my little adventure.
So long!
Ella :)