Location: A Really Big Pond
Hello Everyone! Still open water surrounding Argo, but the Brazilian vibes are in full swing aboard her! The day started off with a big celebration when the clock struck midnight, and both watch team 1 and 3 gave Nini her first birthday wishes of the day, Happy 19th! The graveyard shift went by so fast with the best watch squad, but that doesn’t mean it was uneventful! The rain started coming and going, which meant a fun game of closing and opening hatches with each bout, and it always seemed to start raining after each one was dogged and start up again after you opened them, which wasn’t annoying at all. We all shared “hot takes” with each other during this time, with by far the craziest one being Sylver’s “dark chocolate is the best chocolate.” Unbelievable. Towards the end of watch, we saw the “time to arrival” change from days to hours, less than one day till Fernando! The last hour of watch consisted of all of us talking about how excited we were to sleep for the next seven and a half hours, and once team two took over, we all ran below to do just that.
When the sun finally came up, and when Zac and I finally got dragged out bed by Benny, the ocean looked like the beginning of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, a grey foggy sky with small subtle waves, it felt as if the Black Pearl was going to come out of nowhere! Meg sent up a delicious penne lunch with garlic bread that hit the spot on an afternoon like today. Following our amazing meal, everyone hit their cleanup jobs and went below deck for class just as the rain kicked in again. Today’s classes consisted of my presentation on Understanding Others for Leadership, which included a few rounds of poker after my slideshow to see if people could “understand each other” and a powerful documentary about trying to save dying coral reefs called Chasing Coral for marine bio. We all watched a quick but exciting presentation about what to expect when we reach Fernando from Darien and Maddy to get us hyped for the next few days! Most of us stayed below deck following classes to work on our literature reviews for oceanography, which the due date is coming way too quickly, but you could say my paper on lionfish is going “swimmingly”. I took a break from my screen to join team two on their watch, where a mobile dance circle began around the cockpit when Brazillian dance music came on, and climaxed with a passionate dance between Shane and I on the stern of the ship.
Everyone came above deck for Meg’s curry with some warm fresh bread, which was scrumptious. During our meal, Calum noticed the bottom of Shane’s foot had a piece of dead skin that looked like the Sorting Hat’s face from Harry Potter. Everyone got in line to be sorted into a house at the decision of Shane’s left foot, I got Hufflepuff which everyone seemed to agree with. Once we had all been sorted, Benny came up the charthouse companionway with Nini’s birthday “brookie,” a mix between a brownie and a cookie, and we all sang the song. Kiki and I scrubbed down the heads until they were sparkling, which lasted about five seconds until everyone went in to take their showers. The day wrapped up with team one suiting up for the 8-12 and guiding Argo to Fernando through the night.
Everyone is pumped to get on land again! Many photos to come of the world-famous beaches and gorgeous scenery the tiny island of Brazil contains! See you all after we drop anchor!
P.S. Hey, family and friends reading this! I love you all, and I am stoked to share all the amazing memories I have made with you all when I make it back!!