Location: Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island
Dear family and friends,
Today marked the final day of our rotation through the introductory job wheel. By now, everyone has completed each job at least once, and tomorrow we will move onto a new job wheel that will have both the students and the staff on it. As a result of this special occasion, tonight’s Squeeze question was, “What is your favorite job on the job wheel?” My favorite job is bosun, which is an opinion that apparently no one else shares. Also, I am appreciative today of George for his very soothing early morning wake-ups when it is time for my Watch Team to rotate on. Great way to start the day.
In HBO’s “The Wire,” the characters repeat a phrase about jail time, saying, “you only do two days. That’s the day you go in and the day you go out.” While I have never been to prison, being underway is as close to that theory as I have so far experienced. During a passage, which day it is becoming less significant, as more pertinent questions like “When am I on watch again” and “How long until I can eat again” take precedence. Because of strong wind gusts, we were able to have sailed up and the engine off for over twelve straight hours, blowing us into Christmas Island ahead of schedule. As a result, the Boat Appreciation that was scheduled for this afternoon was moved up to this morning. Ben kindly agreed to give us shore time if we efficiently and effectively tackled our duties before lunch. Claire Maco, seen in the photo, was caught off guard by both my photographing and by the amount of cheese required for Steph’s cheese quesadillas, which were delicious!
This shore time was especially well-received today because it appears Christmas Island will be our last port of snack provisioning until we get to Mauritius. That means we have about 20 days of sailing ahead of us before Nick H. can stockpile Oreos or Jack can accumulate industrial quantities of coffee. As the photo of the dinghy rides back to the boat shows, we took full advantage of this opportunity. Thankfully we behaved appropriately on the island, preventing a diversion to the Christmas Island Courthouse, which can be seen below.
Jam-packed into today was an Oceanography quiz, which we definitely did not take as quickly as possible in order to maximize our shore time! Finally, we have a lot to look forward to tomorrow. Half of the boat will be diving off of Argo, which we have not done yet. Meanwhile, the other half will be doing a trekking excursion on Christmas Island! The following day we will flip-flop so that everyone gets to do both activities!
Until I am skipper again,
-Henry, #23
P.S. Mom/Dad, please give me updates on the Yankees game via text.