Location: Mallorca
Alright, before I say anything else, let me just set the scene of one of the most entertaining moments I have experienced at this company: The time is 6:45, my alarm rings vigorously, shaking me awake. Now normally I get up at 7, but today I am skipper, so I made sure to be up well before, so I could prepare my morning wake-up for everyone. Now, around 6:46, one of the sous chefs walks in, I have no clue who(either Matthew or Teo), and tells me they need help with something in the galley. Among all of my jobs on this boat, I am also the regional provisinor and know everything when it comes to our food supply(assuming I’ve done math correctly, turns out I didnt because we ran out of lettuce for dinner), so I think to myself, well, that’s convenient, I’ll go pop down and see. Now what I am about to describe to you is something only a seamester student may understand, so parents, please do not have any concern, this is quite normal, kinda. I grab my speaker and head into the galley, where I am met with utter chaos. Club music is on full volume, blaring through the boat speakers.
Teagan looks terribly exhausted, running solely on the fumes of the music and food. Apparently, a handle snapped off a pan in the middle of frying eggs, and well, you can guess where the eggs ended up. By this point, Club Argo is on its last legs, on the verge of shutdown, until I wake up the crew. Then, something quite strange happens, by the means and standards of regular life on land. As I am waking people to the infamous song Swag Surfing on full blast, which I quite normally do as skipper, Club Argo had a full revival. Parents, I am sure you are familiar with your kids, maybe waking up groggy, tired, and cranky. Well, in the weirdest turn of events, as people shuffled out of their bunks and into the salon, the nightlife (7 am) hit its peak in club Argo. I kid you not, with music on full blast, a chef crew of 3 that were completely exhausted, and a saloon 22 strong, people began dancing and singing. Not just moving around, people were actually dancing, like a concert was taking place in the galley, as they watched their chefs prepare breakfast under the red lights, hibachi style. I have never been more energized by a single moment on this boat than going from my bed at 6:45 to the dance floor of raving students at Club Argo, Hibachi Night, by 7:02. This is one of those moments where you realize how awfully different life on one of these boats is compared to regular life. We still do all the simple things, just on a boat, maybe we dive or sail, that’s all fairly normal in life too. However, waking up to clubbing in 17 minutes, yeah, that’s not even enough time for me to fully get from hitting my alarm to making it into the kitchen at home. What a wonderful life this is. (Editor Rachel here: the amount Aidan has talked about 6:45-7:02 am in this blog is beautiful, carry on).
Now I will talk about the day, but as you can guess, it just wasn’t as exciting as our morning. But that is completely ok. Not every moment out here has to be the best, because then what moments will you remember? None of them. So to breifly talk about our day, after Club Argo had its final song of the night(morning) and (hardly, I am pretty sure club music blasted from someones speaker or phone the enitre day) we finished breakfast, the group split into students working on their rescue certs, who enjoyed a fun dive in the morning, and those currently are working on their advanced certifications, who helped Charlie and I wash our top sides. Post lunch, Liv and Emily finished their open water certs!!!! Huge congrats to them. And those pursuing their advanced certs went out for a navigation dive with Nacho and me. Among the things spotted between all the groups, there were a handful of eels, an octopus, anemones, and loads of fish! While these dives occurred, the rescue students hopped in and did some skills and drills underneath the boat! All in all, it was a great day, a day that started unlike any other day, a day that also is unlike any other day. But, even if we don’t remember all the moments, I can assure you we are all remembering the things that matter, and in between, just soaking it in.
“Life is like living on a sailboat, when you stub your toe on a D ring, say and get over it.” Well, you get the idea.
Also, shoutout spicy uno. If you don’t know, ask your kids. There’s a brawl going down in the salon right now.