Location: Underway to Casablanca, Morocco
Today, we departed Europe for Africa. Following a quick fuel stop in Gibraltar, we dropped our dock lines and began to make our way through the straights out into the Atlantic Ocean en route to Casablanca, Morocco. The only class today was Oceanography, where students presented their marine topics. As it turns out, the ocean is running out of fish. Now, here’s a little story I’ve been writing… While in the process of preparing to sail and take off from the harbor, two vultures flew from the shore and began circling us. They followed us, circling for miles out of the harbor before finding a nesting place in the crow’s nest on top of the mainmast. The vultures seemed to make themselves at home in the crow’s nest and could potentially be nested on Argo for the rest of the voyage. This sort of thing never happens. We are uncertain how the vultures are planning to survive these coming months, and we hope they don’t know anything we don’t. As we learned today in class, the ocean is running out of fish. Therefore, the vultures on the crow’s nest decided to stay aboard Argo instead of finding an island on which to nest. I just wish they would give me back my bunk. Last night, after my watch, I lifted up my sheet to find the two vultures standing over their egg, raising their wings and screeching at me. My bunk-mates yelled at me to keep the noise down, so I yanked my pillow out from the vulture’s beak and went to sleep in the saloon. Times are getting hard.