Yay! Swimming!
Location: Sardinia, Italy
This morning started off strong with a beautiful sunrise, delicious lemon bread courtesy of Celia and Charles, and a refreshing dip in the Med. We explored an incredible little cove tucked away by walls of layered sandstone ("pull-and-peel" rock) on the southern coast of Corsica. In the warm morning light, we clambered over the rocks to find the best places to jump off of and snorkeled through the lush marine meadow of seagrass with tons of small, striped fish swarming around. As boat traffic picked up considerably, we climbed back into Nopadone and Plai (our resident dinghies). With only the slight hiccup of Nopadone's engine not starting, we motored back to Argo. Once we were all aboard, we set off for Sardinia. During the 2.5-hour motor over to our first anchorage in Sardinia, we enjoyed one of our crew's classic lunch meals (buffalo tofu sliders with corn salad). We had a lovely time enjoying the perfect weather and watching all the different boats out and about. Oh, how I've missed laying out on deck soaking up the sun without a PFD (personal flotation device) on. I don't think anyone predicted how much we were going to miss the anchor day schedules we had in the BVI. It feels fitting to (almost) end the trip the same way we started. And honestly, who knew we'd come to love saltwater showers? Certainly not me--but I can tell you that taking a sea shower today for the first time in a month or so felt incredible.
We finished up the afternoon with our last biological oceanography lecture on the marine food web and the characteristics of the organisms at each level, followed up by a PSCT review session for their tides exam tomorrow (wish them luck! They're going to do so well). We ended the day with another amazing meal of chicken jambalaya--big shout out to the chefs Celia and Charles--and a dinner clean-up filled with laughter and chaotic hose handling. We're supposed to have a movie night tonight though we have yet to decide on a movie.
Looking forward to whatever we'll choose. I trust the general taste in movies on this boat...and hopefully, I'll still be able to stand by that judgment by the end of the night.