Location: Underway to Bonaire
Today was a day of epiphanies for yours truly. I awoke to the gentle touch of Mr. Mosley at approximately 07:29, a full 60 seconds of sleep lost to eternity. Grabbing a cup of tea and making my way on deck, the grandeur of our blue planet was seared onto my eyes as I received the briefing from Mama Meg. A couple of sail changes during the night, and a generator that needed turning on, were how Argo started her day. As watch team 3 settled into our daily routine of helming, deck operations, and a bit of tidying up, our first Helmsona was attempted by Avery. He shall now be referred to as Straight to Helm, in honor of completing a grueling 4 hours straight on the helm. Shortly after our watch was underway, we were alerted to a pod of dolphins off our bow, slicing and gliding graciously through the fickle blue waters of the western Caribbean. My first epiphany came when Jonas and Will came back, speaking of a dubl dolphin jump they had seen. Now, I may have been a tad late to the uptake, but this truly went over my head, and I was fully convinced they were speaking in tongues to each other. The culmination of my first ephiphany did not finish until lunch, when Will showed the video of the dubl dolphin jump to Grace, and the pictures of the puzzle fell into place. Dubl was genuinely just an enunciated word for a double dolphin jump. I felt like a silly billy; however, it reminded me that I, too, am capable of making mistakes, believe it or not.
The human mind comprehends absolutely nothing.
I believe my second ephiphany happened at roughly 09:12, when I was summoned to the main salon bilge chasing an alarm. I ended up finding a bit of water splashing around in a bilge that normally does not fill up with water. Curious as always, I did a bit of chasing and found that we had some good ole H2O underneath the mast. What ensued was a full day of Bilge diving. Aidan, Nacho, Nick, Shane, and I spent the morning and afternoon rolling around in oil and water, cleaning out our bilge. It was quite the spectacle. Sarah (who does very much remind us of the bear from The Lorax) offered her help and really aided the process of cleaning and putting away all of our special tools. Jonas was also plucked from the crowd on deck and became our special boy, dumping gallons of water from our pump down the galley sink. He deserves the purple cross for bravery. My epiphany came when I reminisced about the time I spent in Antigua over the interim, and the myriad of individuals who have dedicated their careers to boats. We, as the bilge gang, are very fortunate to have been put in our position today, as Im sure the crew of M/Y Galene is not spending their free time getting oily in the middle of the Ocean, and hence not experiencing the full range of human emotion. How lucky are we?
Between the word we. and Between, that you have just read, the crew of Argo completed a gybe and reefed the mainsail all together. It was a thrilling event that even brought the likes of a bulk carrier to see the action take place. We speculated about what they were carrying back on the main sheet, some said coal, others sugar.
I leave you with this parting gift;
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Im a stinky bilge boy
And so are you.
Until next time,