Location: Underway to Cocos Keeling
Hi again! It feels like it has simultaneously been ages and seconds since the last time I was skipper on Whale Shark day. What a whirlwind the last month has been! Today was a very early start for me and the rest of watch team 1. We had the 4 am-8 am, which is my second-favorite night watch. When we came up on deck at 4, it was rather cloudy, but as time went on, the skies cleared and revealed the most incredible starry night! I’ve never seen so much of the Milky Way before. I wonder if I said that last time I wrote the blog, too, but it truly never gets old! The waning crescent moon hung low in the sky as the sun rose about 30 minutes earlier than our predictions. Riley, Emma, Adda, Henry, Keith, Alice, Scarlette, and I passed the time on our watch by playing 21 million questions, formerly known as 21 questions. Each of us pictures the most random and obscure things, and the rest of us just narrow it down by guesses until we get it (or occasionally give up). Some notable tough topics have been third graders (as a whole, in general), Plato’s allegory of the cave, Ernest Shackleton’s expedition across Antarctica, the Magna Carta, and Lunchables. Ironically, Lunchables were the most difficult to guess! At around 8 am, we raised the fisherman’s sail with watch team 2 and then headed to bed for a few more hours of rest before lunch and classes.
Scarlette, Jewel, and Zoe made delicious barbecue chicken wraps for lunch, and after clean up, we went straight into Marine Bio class. Perry gave an interesting lecture on the Phylum Arthropods (which make up 3/4 of all described species, wouldn’t you know), and then we had a great group conversation in leadership class about our ‘Vows to Vela’ during this semester, which basically is a student-led code of conduct and values that will help make our voyage go smoothly.
We had a few hours after class to spend on watch, studying, relaxing, or working out as Maia, Zeke, and Wiley did. I worked on my fish identification log until we had dinner. Scarlette and her sous chefs made chicken enchiladas, which turned out so good! As we were starting to dig in, Riley called out that there were dolphins off the starboard bow. We all watched excitedly to see a few dolphins frolicking near the boat, and some even jumping out of the water! It was very idyllic with the sun sinking back into the clouds on the horizon.
My squeeze question tonight was for everyone to share their favorite baby name (assuming they would have to name a baby tomorrow). It was very entertaining to hear people’s top picks, and it certainly showed who kept a running list in their notes app and who did not! Anyway, we should be arriving at Cocos Keeling sometime tomorrow afternoon. We are all so stoked to get there and looking forward to a post-boat appreciation beach day! TBD yet if we will have sufficient cell service on the island, but keeping fingers crossed that we will have enough to say hi to people back home. To my people back home, I love you and miss you all so much! Please give Roxy some pets for me!
Love,
Hannah