Location: Pacific Ocean
Today, day 35 of this program and day 20 of passage were both relaxing and fun. My day started off with the 4 am-8 am watch with watch team 3. We listened to music with one of our watch team leaders, Jack, on aux, and kept a vigilant watch of the boat while everyone else was asleep. I specifically did a boat check with my crew member and watch team member, Ella. Together, we were able to get past the infamous water-tight doors with no problems. I also helped wake up watch team 1 a few hours later with Holland. I woke up watch team 1’s leader, 1’sarlie, by sticking my head through a porthole in his room from the deck! Watch ended amazingly when Rachel approached us and took our orders for a restaurant at Palau in 2 days! We were all so excited! I myself ordered pizza rolls, a burger, and a chocolate lava cake. More than anything, though, I really want a cold Diet Coke.
After watch, most of my team went to bed, but I decided to stay up, one to make sure that I’d be awake early enough to wake everyone up, but also to do some personal housekeeping chores. Our dear 40A-ers are leaving in a few days, and we definitely don’t want them to forget us, so 2 days ago, we were given cards to write to all 8 crew members who are leaving (the 8 leaving have to write 32 cards to everyone staying!). So, being up as early as I was (watch ended at 8 am and wakeups aren’t until), I decided to write the last 3 of the 8 cards I had left. I wrote cards to Amy, Addi, Emily,Ella, and Kennedy yesterday, so today I wrote to Kaya, Alyssa, and Holland. I’m really going to miss all of them when they leave! After writing these cards, I did a little review of some of the SCUBA concepts we learned before passage. After all, we’ll be arriving in Palau in 2 days, and I want to be extra ready to visit all the cool dive sites. Finally, I resubmitted my marine biology paper FOR THE 6TH TIME after the flash drive crashed AGAIN. If it doesn’t work, I’m just taking the zero.
At this point, it was time to get everyone on deck for lunch. I went up and down the cabin hallway, gently waking people up (which is not how everyone wakes people up on this boat). I then made sure everyone on board got food before heading upstairs to eat the delicious Med bowls that Kaya and Nacho made. After lunch, our day took an academic turn. Our rescue divers had a brief meeting in the salon, during which I had watch again (2 pm-6 pm). I was only on deck for a few minutes before it was time for marine bio taught by Nacho. It was a very interesting class about Cnidarians, and the part I took away the most was about jellyfish and how they are usually always in what is called a medusa phase (you can kind of assume what that means from the name, hopefully). After marine bio, everyone assembled in the salon for our final day of Seamanship class. Our teacher, Charlie, had a surprise for us today: we watched Moana. Well, most of us did. My watch team had watch, so we actually didn’t get Did n’tch Moana, but we heard it from up on deck. We were actually practicing medical scenarios for the emergency first responder certificate we’re alltryinge to earn. Jack and Isaac went over the proper way to splint a broken arm, and we also talked about the steps to treating a patient when you first approach a scene. It’s basically split into 3 steps: assess the scene, primary care (airways, breathing, bleeding), and secondary care (vitals, smaller injury detection, etc.). It’s all very interesting stuff, and Jack is a great teacher. We’re also to have Isaac on watch team 3, who is a certified EMT and gave us pointers the whole time.
At around 6 pm, dinner was ready, and I went downstairs to gather the next watch team and alert everyone. For this meal, Kaya, Nacho, and Jen made us noodle bowls. It was supposed to have teriyaki chicken, but we finished the sauce earlier in the week, so I was told that the sauce on the noodles and chicken was, and I quote, “Jen’s spec, “Jen’s sauce. I have no idea what it tasted like, but it tasted pretty good with vegetables and tofu.
After dinner in the cockpit, it was time for me to lead our daily squeeze and appreciations. If you’re new you’rewe basically get in a circle, hold hands like we’re sayinwe’rece, and then go around saying our appreciations for the day and answering a question asked by the skipper (that’s me tthat’s I happened to make it all the way to dinner without thinking of a squeeze question, but luckily, my friend and fellow watch team 3 member, Skye, had a great question for me to ask: if you could have any 5 liquids come out of each of your 5 fingers, what would you choose? Common answers were chocolate milk, gasoline, and ice-cold water. I was the only one with an appreciation for sparkling water 🙁 After squeezing hands and shouting huge in honor of our captain, Shane, a common saying, we all went to clean up, and I came here to write this blog.
Overall, it was a very relaxing day made more exciting by the fact that e were given confirmtion of reaching Palau in 2 days. I can’t wait to see what adventures await us.
Mom and Dad, I finally got to be skipper, so I hope this cheers you up. I swear I tried to get in as many pictures as possible. I love and miss you. Jordan and Gavin, I love and miss you guys too, and hope you’re having a great summer! Thank you to everyone for keeping up with our journey! Have a great night/day! – Everett Cohen