Location: Underway to Dominica
It’s officially Day 4 of the much-anticipated Atlantic Crossing! Most of our fears are beginning to wallow away as we sail further away from land. We’re all now pretty comfortable with underway life; the constant hustle of bodies walking through the hallways, the slamming of the watertight doors, and the rustling of foulies will become the soundtrack to our lives for the next 12 days. I think today was a perfect depiction of our comfort and happiness, at least for me! Beasley made the crew hummus for lunch, which surprisingly turned out to be an amazing lunch (many doubted it). After cleanup, we had an MTE class with Kris and Leah, where we worked on our chart work in preparation for our upcoming Nav Master Exam. Our class is really starting to understand the importance of precision in chart work, as many of us worked endlessly on the first problem in order to get the answer down to the exact degree. After MTE, we had Oceanography with Keith. I think he’s beginning to understand the group dynamic more and more as he brought bags upon bags of candy in an attempt to help us understand certain exercises.
Everyone was pleased as we gorged ourselves with Maltesers and M and M’s. Our first Advanced Diving course was next (for those who are taking it). Britt taught us the ins and outs of Deep Diving and Night Diving to prepare us for our dives in the Caribbean. Shortly after, Holden and Staige caught us a 15-pound tuna!! The excitement was high as Holden perfectly filleted the baby tuna for Beasley to prepare for dinner. The crew split up after that; most went to take a nice 2-hour nap before dinner, and others did some work while Watch Team 1 stayed on deck to keep watch. I was lucky enough to stay on bow watch with Karl, Liza, and Biz.
A couple of days ago, somebody brought up the notion of a “seamester” moment, the moment defined as the realization of what you’re doing, where you are, and how lucky you are to be here on Argo. This was one of those moments. The four of us talked for a while; we talked of Biz’s future college endeavors, Karls plans of helping to get rid of the Great Pacific garbage patch, and how Watch Team Numero Uno is clearly the best watch team of all. Then, we sat in silence for about 30 minutes in complete tranquility and peace. I guess that was the moment when I realized how comfortable everyone was with each other on this boat. Sitting in silence, without the pressure of talking and understanding completely why nobody needs to talk, could be the most defining moment in friendship. After an hour, we all mustered in the cockpit for dinner. Tuna and pork loin! It’s been an amazing day altogether. I can’t wait to spend the next 12 days on passage with everyone!