Location: Underway to Barbados
With the wind on our beam, we are still sailing on nicely to Barbados, trying to get as much speed out of Argo as we can. With this in mind, watch team 2 (myself, Shane, Maddy, Zac, Kiki, and Kara) arose for our 12-4, ready for a watch full of sail trimming. Little did we know what the wind had in mind for us. Every hour, we had a shift in the wind, which resulted in each member of the watch team heading to the bow to trim our sails. Around the 2 am boat check, the wind steadied out for a bit, so we decided it was time for a popcorn break to refuel. Our goal was to constantly maintain 8 knots, and when we saw our SOG dip below that, we knew it was time to head forward and check on the sails. This effort was not in vain, as we succeeded in keeping an average of 8.5 knots throughout our 4 hours. At 4 am we passed the boat over to watch team 3 (Nicole, Ben, Cecily, Isaac, Darien, Olympus) with the log reading at 4999 nautical miles traveled. Watch team 2 stayed up to help trim sails and make guesses on when we would reach the 5000-mile mark. Zac won the guess, hitting it right on the dot of 4:11. As a final handover, we challenged watch team 3 to aim to keep 8 knots the whole night, and it appears they succeeded as when we did the math today, we covered 200 nautical miles in 24 hours. That’s averaging 8.3 knots!
After a night full of sail handling,g everyone was ready for Kara’s lunch of chicken and rice bowls. With stomachs full, everyone was ready for their navmaster practice exam. The afternoon was going to be split with one group testing and the other on deck with me for oceanography, then switching once the practice test was done. After classes, many people took time to hang out on deck and enjoy the wonderful sailing or take a nap. Calum and I spent the afternoon planning for all the diving to come to Barbados.
As the evening comes to an end, watch team 3 ( Kackie, Nini, Sylver, Benny, Talia, and Eli) are on watch, re-trimming the sails as I write the blog, keeping our speed as fast as we can. I think many are motivated by the idea of a cold soda and ice cream when we hit land. Hopefully tonight brings some favorable wind and fast sailing. Maybe even another 200 nautical miles in 24 hours??