Land Ho!!!!!!!
Location: Nuka Hiva, French Polynesia
AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
We made it!!!!!!!! We made it across the whole Pacific!! Did you know that the Pacific Ocean is the biggest??? Because it is. And we just crossed it. Boo-yah.
Today was like a dream that, for me, technically started at 00:00. I did the 00:00-4:00 watch with team three (a crowd favorite), and the stars were phenomenal, as always. Then I went back to sleep for the ol' post 00-4:00 nap. And when I say nap, I mean the actual crowd favorite, a 7.5-hour nap that you get to take until the 12:00-14:00 lunch shift. But today, I didn't sleep all the way until 12. At around 10:30, I awoke to my good friend Mac poking me and saying, "Sam. There's landdddd." Eyes half-open but excited, I got out of bed and popped my head up to such a beautiful sight - LAND!!!! The island in front of us was jagged and big, green and red, and full of trees, with so many cool sights that we hadn't seen in so long.
From there, the day just got better and better. We passed a few islands on our way (all gorgeous) and watched as Taiohae Bay and the Island of Nuka Hiva got bigger and bigger. Once the anchor was down (led by Sandra - a star), Felipe (and everyone else) got their PFDs off as fast as possible, and soon everyone was jumping in the water. The feeling can probably only be described as euphoria. I missed being in the ocean so much.
THEN. We set up the boom launcher (swing) and watched as everyone did flips/swings/jumps from the boom with varying degrees of success. Pieter even did an Olympic-level cannonball.
THEN, Ash's duckless duck noodle soup came up. Boy, oh boy, it's delicious. If you're ever in the same space as Ash and he's making a meal, I hope for your sake it's his duck noodle soup (with or without duck). The aromas alone are phenomenal.
Now, we're all finishing clean up and trying to remember how to function on such flat ground (this is actually a pretty rolly anchorage), with white light and with no pending boat checks or helming requirements. Maybe I'll watch a movie with my friends. Who knows? AND. We'll all basically get a full night's sleep tonight (the anchor watch feels so small compared to a four-hour watch). What a wild idea.
AH, SO MANY GOOD THINGS!