Location: Underway to Lisbon
Today almost all of us woke up to the fire alarm (ED Note: this was a fire drill wake-up). I personally don’t even remember getting out of bed. All of a sudden, I was on the ground with PFD and Gumby suit in hand. I was then shaking in the cockpit from such a terrible wake-up. It wasn’t all bad because we were all up 15 minutes early for breakfast. We then had an incredible breakfast of French toast and fresh fruit salad of strawberries, watermelon, and blueberries. It was so delicious I had 3 plates of fruit. Soon after, we started passage prep. That includes taking sail covers off, attaching halyards, securing all that needs to be lashed, and much more. Our passage prep went by slowly but surely. We soon found some unexpected problems in the shore heads and fixed that promptly. We then pulled off the dock, and Mac had an impeccable maneuver out of the marina. Vela was in need of fuel, so we headed over to the fuel dock to bunker. We pulled onto the dock and then had a great lunch of chicken salad. Sam started packing her bags and getting ready to leave. Sam has been such an incredible and influential part of Vela, so she will be leaving a large gap in everything we do here. She will be greatly missed. All the staff and many students had a very hard time seeing her go. We then pulled off the gas dock and headed out of the harbor. Everyone got to work making sure everything was put away, and we were ready to head out to sea. As we motored out, the chefs made a chicken Mediterranean bowl. We ate while being on the edge of a squall. We have started our first night watch, and all is going well.
Shout out to Sam; we all miss you greatly and hope you’re doing great too.
Happy birthday to Wilkes’ grandma!
I hope my family is reading this, and if so, hi Mom, Pop, and girls. Tell Maia I say hi. Miss you all so much.