AQ Transatlantic Crossing – Summer 2025

To the faithful Argo blog readers, I come bearing wonderful news. In approximately 13 hours and 54 minutes, we will be making landfall in the Azores archipelago. After nearly 17 days crossing the mighty Atlantic Ocean, being so close to our destination has brought a grand sense of accomplishment to the crew of SY Argo. To while away the hours off watch, I have been thinking about what the Azores may actually look like once they rise above the horizon; knowing absolutely nothing about these islands, I will give you the account of what I believe this magnificent place will show us.
As Argo creeps through the fog, anchors ready to drop, the bow watch sees a cargo ship getting underway out of the port of Horta. We see the lights of the city emerge and the sounds of a bustling port. In the distance, a bar is open late into the night, and the Azorians are busy celebrating another day alive. As the anchor digs into the sand and we are set, the sun begins to rise, and in doing so, the true nature of the Islands comes into full view. Enormous rock formations covered in dense, wet foliage are trapped in the clouds, juxtaposed against the deep, rich blue Atlantic. As the rest of the crew shuffle onto deck for breakfast, they are taken aback by the truly breathtaking piece of solid land they find themselves on. Thousands of miles from anywhere, caught in the North Atlantic swell, these are the moments that forge the next generation of sailors. Following in the footsteps of the great Portuguese explorers who claimed this land for their nobility centuries ago, Argo makes her mark yet again on these ancient shores. All of this conjecture is good and fun, if you actually believe the Azores exist. After 17 days at sea, it starts getting hard to believe land at all exists.
So, in order not to be disappointed if the Azores do not come over that horizon tomorrow morning, I will continue to write this blog as if the only thing promised to us was another day on the deep blue yonder.
Today, the watch team three started at 7:30 am. I was awoken by Meghan from watch team 2, and if you had a camera set up in my bunk, almost every morning without fail, you would witness a grown man recoil at the thought of leaving his cozy bed and braving the elements. Without fail, being woken up for a watch involves one of two conversations. The first:
Meg: Charlie, it's time to watch.
Charlie: No, Meg, please say it's not so. *recoils back into a slumber*
Meg: It's really cold out, Charlie. Put some warm clothes on. OR It's really wet out, put your foulies on.
Charlie: *groans* makes Yorkshire tea.

While it may seem like watch is the bane of our existence, the funny thing is I don't know what I would do without it. I grew to love offshore sailing because it is one of the only opportunities we have in this world to truly experience life at all moments of the day. No other profession involves staying awake at 4 am watching the ballad between the stars, moon, clouds, and water. It is a truly unique experience where you become disconnected from anything one might consider a normal life. No Instagram reels, so stock market, no grocery stores, and gas stations. So it may not be apparent every morning, Meg, but thank you. Shoutout to Nicole, Lanie, Macie, Mina, Alex, Greyson, Henry, Brady, Andrew, and Brig, the brave souls of Watch Team 3.
As for the students of Argo, today was a good day of learning. Everyday this passage they have had both Seamanship and Leadership. In seamanship, they have been working on studying for their IYT Nav Master exam, 1 of 6 modules required for the IYT Master of Yachts certification. It has been a pleasure watching everyone put the work into this endeavour, and taking most students from never seeing a chart to being a navigation master is a beautiful thing to be a part of. The students also had leadership today, and having just finished the movie Passengers, Nicole had them play a spaceship game. The spaceship game involved each student being assigned a role, age, and gender. Roles include nuclear scientist, Buddhist monk, marine biologist, or HVAC technician. They then had to select 20 of the 26 roles to be given a space aboard the spaceship flying to new worlds. The exercise allowed the students to have important conversations about what society values in a workforce and a future that can sustain itself. But all of this is to say that if you happen to be a Buddhist Monk, your child may not allow you to board a spaceship heading for Timbuktu.

In my closing thoughts as Skipper of Argo, I just want to say how special it has been crossing an Ocean with the 26 shipmates that have made sure to keep Argo happy and in return safely weather every day to bring us to this new world.