Musical Clothes
Location: Malolo Island, Fiji
The screech of the forward staysail boom drums rhythmically through the morning as the leech and preventer lines loosen a needles width with each rock of Argo. Carribiners and other various metal trinkets cling together below deck reminding me of the wind chimes surrounding my house back home that I've woken to since a young kiddo. Light has just begun to creep through the forward hatch and reach my eyes as the watch crew before me gently shakes me awake. Every morning aboard Argo presents endless novel possibility, the kind a kid can only dream of; learning how to crew a schooner vessel to sail the open ocean, scubadive through underwater coral gardens seen and touched by maybe a dozen humans before us, or partake in a cultural event that is nothing short of jaw dropping and unlike anything any of us have ever seen. Everyday has been our best day so far in Fiji, however today is a little more special for me, as I get to be SKIPPER!
I start my watch the same everyday by staggering my way to the galley sink like a fish out of water. Something about boat life requires double the water of land life. I pop up the companionway stairs in the dark and skip across the deck to greet two of my friends who only want to crawl back in bed and get that last hour of sleep. My watch partner Jaden and I witness a one of a kind sunrise surrounded by mountains in a bay that can only be compared to a scene from jurassic world. A couple of the crew are up early to do some diving for their advanced cert, but also to set up a scenario for us students becoming rescue divers. As 7am rolls around Jaden, Susie and I ponder what song I will be blasting through the halls to wake up the boat. I settled on “Earth” and “Good morning Hawaii” which I encourage everyone to play out loud and enjoy! As I dance and yell through the halls and rooms of the boat, a shriek echos from the deck above as the rescue scenario begins its timer! This signals to Sky, Sophie, Clam, Faith, Amy and myself that we have 10 minutes to figure out who is overboard, where they are, how many there are, and what is happening to the divers (below and above the water) while collectively working to perform every rescue move we’ve been taught! And yes, the rest of the crew is allowed to watch, and some are even allowed to participate by throw themselves overboard to become helpless victims :) After our sucessful scenario, we all got together for a breakfast consisting of overnight oats with cherries, mango and chocolate.
At this point in the trip we have all worn through most of our clothes which brings me to this blogs title, MuSicAl CloThEs! If you have seen any recent pictures of the Argo, every inch of our lifelines are covered in a rainbow of clothing, towels, bathing suits, dive gear, and anything else we could possibly hang. And being the young adults that we are, the lifeline is a much better location for our things than our rooms as we forget these items even exist. Musical clothes involved every member of our crew lining up around the outside of the boat to lay eyes on every item of clothing, collecting what was ours. By the end, all but a few clothes were collected. However, by the end of the day today, they have all returned. After our fun morning, we started our journey back to Malolo island where we started our sailing journey on day 2. Along the way, our crew began drawing on our faces with colored zinc sunscreen sticks one at a time. It took minutes for the news to spread, as is the case on this vessel (THERE ARE NO SECRETS), and we realized that the crew had begun to mark us for our watch teams. These are what we have been dreading and waiting for for a lng time now as we grow close to our 20 day passage to Palau. These teams that we are being placed into are who we will be around 24/7 for the entire passage. We will be on watch together for 4 hours in 12 hour rotations where we hardly see anyone else but our team. So as you can imagine the tensions were high all day while people got suprised with their team color, blue, pink or green. During our passage we also had our second seamanship quiz, which we all aced, obviously. We also had shepards pie for lunch, crafted by Sophie Clam and Jaden, which was the first meal this entire trip that took me back to my mom's cooking (meatloaf or lasagna)! Our passage took all day and the heat and suspense was getting to everyone. By the time we set anchor, everyone knew who was in our watch teams, and we only had the crew left to reveal their colors. At anchor, we all gathered on the port caprail on the outside of the lifeline, backs facing the water, eyes closed. On our captain's count, we opened our eyes and fell backwards into the water with our watch groups as the crew joining us were revealed on deck, shortly after jumping in to celebrate with us! It was a ceremonious evening filled with laughter and confusions but we are all stoked in the end.
Mom & Dad I love you. Dad, I hope you feel better soon!