Sailing into Elections
Location: 41 Degrees, 27.570 minutes North, 7 Degrees, 46.470 Minutes East
Our last full day on passage to Sardinia was one full of action (and Oceanography). As usual for time under passage, most of us started our day early in the morning under the stars. During these watches, the August night sky was filled with the bright colors of shooting stars and the glow of bioluminescence in the wake of Vela. Watch team three (Joey, Zoe, Nora, Emma, and Andy) worked together with watch team two (Lucie, Dan, Michelle, and me) to raise the sails of Vela. Andy, Michelle, and Will were waking up early in the morning. We had an amazing bean salad for lunch, with a side of ground beef cooked by Andy. After lunch, we then broke off into an Oceanography quiz, followed by two oceanography lectures.
We learned about the fishing industry and the consequences of overfishing, oceanic pollution, and the organizations that enforce regulations on marine pollution (MARPOL). Nearing the end of our second lecture, we were told the wind had died, and we were going to have to drop the sails. This was met with a little bit of sadness because sailing is awesome. However, we were surprised with a fun swim in the middle of the Med after this sail handing, it all worth it. Will did a couple of sick tricks, Zoe got her first backflip (It was amazing), and Emma started practicing gainers. Most shockingly of all, Tom got in the water. Most of the students haven't seen Tom swim throughout the whole trip. After our amazing swim session, we all went our own ways until dinner. The chefs went to the galley, Watch team two and I went to the cockpit, and everyone else went into free time. For dinner, we enjoyed some (I don't remember). After a nice meal, we all got together for a squeeze. The squeeze question was pretty typical, but we finished off with a game of Duck-Duck-Goose around the squeeze circle.
Joey started off the Duck Duck Goosesing, and we went on for a couple of rounds. It was a nice burst of energy to add to the day. To finish off, Dan finally managed to get a tag after being Goosed, and the game ended. After dinner and squeeze, we went into student elections. During our passage from Sardinia to Civitavecchia, students will be in charge of Vela's operation. We all had the opportunity to run for four positions. The Engineer role, responsible for the safe operations of the engine room and control panel, as well as recording the operating hours of all of our machinery, was won by Will in a landslide election (100%