Location: Antigua
Hello again, dear readers, its me, Gianluca, tasked for the third and last time to inform the world about our adventures.
Today was a full day for the crew of Argo. Mine started with a 12-4 watch in which we did not have a moment of rest since we had to tack a whopping four times. As a gybe expert, the new reality of tacking initially disoriented me, and I had to work on tasks I had close to no experience with. The first tack was rough, but thanks to my watchmates, I managed to get the hang of it, and every tack after that got progressively easier. We went back to bed at 4 am, and I worked on my sleep, getting almost seven full hours before waking up to the sight of Antigua, the end of our journey. Lunch was prepared by my buddy Matthew with the sweet Maria and the reliable Teagan acting as his sous chefs, and it was a great success. After lunch, watch team 3 was once again up for watch, our last watch of the trip, and we had a great time just hanging out with no kind of sail handling to be done. Our fearless Mate, Chloe, even let Matthew and me do a final 2-person boat check to end the trip, something I am incredibly grateful for.
In the afternoon our skipper Cameron and the other mates held a meeting to decide the details of the anchorage in Antigua, from that meeting it was decided that I would work on the forward staysail sheet and the jibs sheet under the watchful eye of Special Teams Bryson (along with other students of course) while Chloe would lead the drop of the main staysail and Teo would handle the main sail while Cameron battled the wind and waves on the helm. The whole process went pretty smoothly, and we managed to anchor well before dinner.
After putting the boat to bed, taking the jibs off, and setting the dive gear for tomorrows dives, we had another finger-licking good meal made by the chef crew of the day. I asked my squeeze question Looking back on the trip what is something that you would change about your experience/attitude/choices?, the answers I got were plenty different, some people had very specific regrets, some people talked more about their attitude and some others accepted their erros as part of the journey but all of them followed the sme silver lining, the journey made them grow in one way or the other.
I personally have no major regrets about my time on Argo, but I just wish I couldve talked to each one of these 28 beautiful souls more. We have truly grown into an amazing, compact group, and I hope I will be able to meet everyone again further down in life.
After dinner, we were given back some of our test results, and Rachel introduced us to an GXG tradition: Cards. Cards are a way to show appreciation to the people who have been part of our Seamester journey by writing them a signed card in which we talk about what we like most about them. I have always struggled to show appreciation to the people I love, and I have always felt that my silver tongue falls short when talking about these kinds of topics, so I really appreciated the opportunity to write what I love about my Argo mates.
Writing my last blog has made me feel all kinds of emotions, sadness because my time on Argo is at its ends, gratefullnes towards everyone who has made this experience memorable, regret for not being able to redo it all over again, happiness because life is one wonderful journey (sometimes more similar to a nice motoring evening watch, sometimes more similar to a jibe at 3 in the morning in the middle of the Atlantic) and I will cherish my time on Argo for the rest of my life.
Some unrelated stories from the day that I could not really fit into my Narrative are:
1. The screen allegedly reported going 20 knots of speed while Rachel was helming during lunch
2. My toenail losing the fight against the Cinque Terre hike and finally starting to fall off after 75 days of intense fighting
3. My phone breaking
About the last point, I want to let my family and friends know that I will try to get it fixed in the next few days, and I will also find a way to keep in contact with them through someone elses phone. I love you all, and I miss you dearly