Location: Underway to Tahiti!
Happy Easter from the crew of Vela! Today we hit the milestone of 4000 Nautical Miles over the trip(still another 3500ish to go). Today started off for me with a red-eyed watch from 4-8 AM with watch team 2 (MVPs). We had another great watch, and in the meantime, Kirby and Fargo (at 4 AM) decided to make a batch of brownies for the crew. However, things went somewhat awry and led to the whole event being dubbed ‘Brownie Gate.’ Firstly, Kirby accidentally put a rotten egg into half of the brownie mix, which led to that half (and his hands) stinking. To rectify the situation, the ever-tiring boys, who had just had watch from 12-4 AM, made a second-half batch of brownies and left the ready mixture to be baked by Allie at about 5 AM, and they headed to bed. The thing was, and nobody knows what, something went a bit pear-shaped with that other batch. I saw it baking at 8 AM when I went to bed and can confirm that there was a layer of oil on top of the brownies. And so, when the boys woke up, they were not pleased to find out the other batch had largely been chucked overboard and were visibly not in a great mood all morning. Their mood was probably further heightened by the sound of the fire alarm going off just after Oceanography. Let me say that this fire alarm is the loudest alarm I have ever heard; it feels like it’s going to perforate your eardrums. It actually hurts to hear and is worse than any house, car, or school fire alarm. We had to carry our type 1 PFD and Gumby suit to the cockpit, and so the challenge of covering your ears and carrying the stuff up the companionway was tough. Turns out it was just a practice, and we then broke into our watch teams to act out what we would do in a fire emergency which was cool to learn about. We ended our training with a fun go on the fire hose, which you can see in the pics.
Afterward, we resumed our normal schedule with a good leadership class from Sammy and Cosmo in which everyone seemed engaged and happier, especially after the trauma of the alarm. To round off the afternoon, I was back on watch with my watch team 2 brethren and chatted to them largely about Harry Potter films, so much so that we decided on watching one tonight after I finish this post. I’m thinking Prisoner of Azkaban, but I’m getting unbelievable pushback as Drew doesn’t like the 3rd or 4th, which is just outrageous. My squeeze question after dinner, which isn’t really a question and more of a demand, was impressions to the person to the left of them, which produced some great results. My personal favorites were Drew’s impression of Kirby, Ben’s impression of Gabby, Miles’s impression of Cosmo, and my one of William’s drew laughs.
All in all, I had a pretty great day, for me, at least. Passage is starting to feel more natural, and while there is still a hell of a long way to go, I’m feeling more positive about making it to the end where Tahiti and many, many deserved nights-out await. This is my last entry in the blogs, so I’d just like to say it’s been a fun time writing these blogs for you all as someone who doesn’t journal, and an incredible experience on this boat with these people, something I’ll undoubtedly remember for the rest of my life. So, for the last time, Tedward signing out.