Location: Palau
Today has been one of the best days of the program so far! Watch team 3 kicked off the day with a 4-8 watch, which started off beautifully under the best night sky I’ve seen so far. There were so many stars! Quickly, a squall came, which lowered the spirits for our last watch on passage together. However, the squall ended quickly and revealed the most beautiful sunrise we’ve seen on passage. As I was sitting on bow watch, enjoying the morning, a pod of dolphins came and swam right across our bow just as a rainbow showed up in the sky. As the sun was rising, we were able to see Palau in the distance. After many arguments on who saw and said what first, we have come to the agreement that Ryan saw land first, and I said Land Ho! First, this last watch with the best watch team to ever grace Vela’s deck was so bittersweet. We are happy to finally get to land and have a normal sleep schedule again, but we have so many good memories together and are losing so many people in a few days. Thank you to watch team leaders Sam, Staff Dan, Ryan, Garrett, Maddy, Ceci, Charles, and Ian for a great 18-day passage. When watch team 1 relieved us at 7:50, we headed down for our last post watch ramen/peanut-butter-in-a-mug-with-honey time before we went back to bed for a little bit.
We were woken at 11:30 to do some tasks on deck since we were close to reaching Palau to go through customs and then anchor. We had to blow up the fenders, put the sail covers on, and perform other tasks to prepare to dock. Once we got to the place to go through customs and get fuel, we had lunch, which was some really good lentil soup and chicken. We headed to our anchorage, which is between two beautiful islands. It’s so nice to finally be on a non-rocking boat. We started boat appreciation, which felt like it would never end. We did our deck wash, cleaned bilges, wiped down all the walls and floors, and provisioned. Once boat appreciation was done, we showered up and headed to Kramer’s for dinner. This restaurant was so delicious! It was so refreshing to have like real food cooked by real chefs. The raw tuna was some of the best I’ve ever had. They had a dartboard and a pool table. Sam and Mac cleared everyone at the pool. I have to say I was pretty good at darts and won two games. Kayla, Ansley, Maddy, and Drew all passed around this rainbow clown wig, and we got great photos of them. We all hung out at Kramers until 11, and we walked back to the docks to dinghy back to the boat. When we got on board, everyone headed to bed since we had a crazy long day and had to get up for anchor watch in the middle of the night. Today was such a good day, and I’m so glad to be in Palau!!
Hi Mom, Hi Dad, I miss you guys so much. I hope you’re having fun in Chicago or wherever you are. To anyone else reading the blog, I miss you too!! Love you all.
-Ty