Watch Parties (for Argo and TV Shows)
Location: Underway to Cape Town
For watch team 1 (Gabe, Travis, Kylie, Juliette, and I), our morning began at 8 am. We arrived on deck to get the handover from watch team 3 (Allie, Will, Philip, Ali, Ava, and Ainsley), where they filled us in on all that had happened since we went to bed at midnight. Some things of note: SAILS had raised both the forward staysail and the main staysail. They also informed us of the bioluminescent dolphins watch team 2 (Kackie, Ben, Hannah, Charlie, and Amanda squared, ft. Special guest Calum) saw on their 12-4 am watch. At the end of the watch, team 1’s 4-8 saw the knighting Ava for completing her 4-hour helm, which earned her the helmsona of John Helmer Routledge (John H for short icky). Kylie took the helm as Travis went below to start preparing our lunch, which may take 4 hours to make, you may ask, homemade French fries. Travis was in the galley whipping up dirty fries and a healthy salad. The rest of us on watch passed the time by solving riddles. Though I was largely unsuccessful at solving them, Bodhi and Juliette figured it out quickly.
As lunch came up, everyone emerged from their bunks to devour all of the fries Travis had sent up quickly. As lunch came to a close, the wind started to fill in, which meant we were able to put up more sails. As the number of sail raises left on the program is slowly coming to an end, many crew were eager to lead the raises. Once both Jibs were up, the crew went down below to take their oceanography final. Most seemed quite ready for it and emerged back on deck 45 minutes later with smiles on their faces. After oceanography, it was time to wrap up seamanship with the return of the International Competent Crew exams that they had taken a few days before.
With classes wrapped up, Travis and his sous chefs took to the galley to whip up some delicious chicken Alfredo while most others who were not on watch took the opportunity to nap. As the night comes to a close, those not on watch have migrated to the saloon to watch Queens Gambit, which will be closely followed by another episode of Outer Banks. For watch team 1 we have the sunset watch so I am headed back on deck for what promises to be another beautiful sunset.