Location: Halfway to Lisbon
YAYAYAYAY IT’S FINALLY MY SKIPPER DAY!! Usually I am the one just uploading the blogs, so it’s such a wonderful novelty to be the one writing it! Today was a glorious day. It started at 3:30 when watch team 2 (Ellie, Ophelia, Giles, Nate, Noah, Max, Jerry, led by Chris and me) awoke for the 4 am-8 am, one of our favorite watches. There was a subtle sunrise that stained the clouds petal pink and lavender and turned the sea a shimmering silvery color (opalescent according to Ophie, pearlescent according to Noah– both great descriptors). Anyway, after the sun rose we listened to some music and laughed at Jerry’s description over the VHF of a cargo ship on the horizon– a ‘long, black rectangle on our port side!’ We saw some Portuguese man-o-wars float past and practiced knots for the upcoming exam in their seamanship class. We also hit our halfway point officially! It is wild to be surrounded by hundreds of miles of ocean as far as the eye can see. The watch slipped by quickly, and we all got a chance for a snooze or chill-out time before lunch. Max, Alex, and Fin were chefs today.
After lunch, instead of the usual class schedule, we had a mini BA (boat appreciation) and sheet change! WAZZZOOO, as Ellie would say! Bryce, Ellery, Julia, Ophelia, and Wilkes were on deck scrub with Chris and I, the chefs cleaned the galley, Ridge and Max washed some rags, and the rest worked on cleaning their cabins and personal spaces. After we were done, the shipmates had class, and I helmed during my 2-6 pm, and Mac, Fin, and Jaime had snack/sparkling water hour with me. Emma was jumping around on the bow (doing her daily workout) when all of a sudden Mac spotted a pod of dolphins only a few meters off our beam! There were quite a few of them, including a tiny baby that was trying its hardest to gracefully leap out of the water, but unfortunately would stumble midway and kind of flop:(. I’m sure it’ll learn soon.
Dinner was spag bol (spaghetti bolognese) and was very tasty! My squeeze question was: if you could create a planet, what would it look like? Nate led us in a post-squeeze fish summoning ritual dance. Right now, Stellery (Stella and Ellery) are taking pictures with Mac, Matt, Declan, and Emma with a beautiful coral sunset in the background. The second half of the passage always flies by, so hopefully we can take in all of the magic and solitude and bubble-ness of it all.
P.S. Hi, and I love you and miss you so much too: Kailin, mom, dad, Luke, Grammie, papa, grandad, Cindy, and any other friends and family reading this!!