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Location: 22 51.74'S 4 43.84'E

Extremely simply, out here in the middle of everywhere, its just us and the elements of air and water. Its the wind pushing our sails (or fuel moving our motor) and the waves beneath our hull. Today was a typical day of sailing across the ocean. Watch Team One, my watch, had watch from midnight to four a.m. and got a good seven and a half hours of sleep after that being woken up just before lunch was served up on deck. Weve, for the most part, getting used to the extremely strange sleep cycle of living on a boat and having watch every eight hours. We had a great lunch of Thai noodles for lunch by the one and only Tina; food is a huge thing on Argo, and were so lucky to have staff and fellow shipmates who actually want to make everyone good food. We had our marine biology lecture, during which we took a short intermission to go on deck and look at one of the flying fish that had flown onto the boat during the morning. One of which had an isopod, a marine parasite stuck to its gills, and Amy was not shy in cutting open the fish to show us the organs. We finished up the day with our first study hall and our standard saltwater hose shower up on deck, something that has most certainly bonded us. We had garlic bread for dinner! (With a side of chicken Alfredo and broccoli and green beans, of course)
Being out on the ocean like this is so different from all of the other ways that Ive seen it. Ive been noticing every detail about the sea that I hadnt before. Like how the color changes every day based on the number of clouds in the sky or the position of the sun or where what longitude or latitude were at. And how the sound of the ocean comes in so many varieties, from the sound of the water hitting the hull right on the other side of the wall as Im falling asleep or the small crash I hear when Im on bow watch, which sounds just like little waves lapping on a sandy shore or how it simply sounds like Argo is cutting through the swells from the cockpit during dinner. The beauty of the natural world is one of my favorite things, so all of the little things thrill me, along with the appreciation for all of the new senses of sailing. The tiny baby barrel waves turning into whitecaps at Argos sides as she floats through the sea. The change of light as the sun descends behind the clouds and hits the swells from different angles with every little peek through the breaks in the clouds. The sound of the sails catching the wind or the air flowing past our masts through all of the lines. Standing out on the bow last night while reviewing names of lines in only the light from the moon refracted through the clouds and reflecting off of the dark water, I looked back at the boat and the big wide blue all around it and realized how small Argo is when shes out on the ocean. I thought about how along with the eleven of us who were up on deck for watch, twenty-three people were all sleeping down below in the comfort of their bunks, our little home for these three months, and in some way that both freaked me out and calmed me all at the same time.