Location: Porto Venere
For some of us, the day started at 4 am on watch, specifically Lukas, Max, Dan, Elis, Audrey, Mac, and me, and with Grace C. at the helm, we expertly maneuvered our way into the Port town of Venere to anchor. For the rest of the crewmates, it was a relaxing wake-up to the horns of reveille at 8. On our agenda for the day was some free shore time in town right after breakfast, where we saw the amazing views from the top of the hill where an old church and fortress used to stand tall. Most of us walked up the stairs, but a few, Boston and Brendan, decided to climb up the rock face and into the fortress because why not? At the top, Ruby and Theo convinced me to do a handstand for the first time, and it resulted in a great action shot after many failed attempts. The town of Venere has a very aesthetic feel to it with narrow streets and many store fronts to look at, Theo almost purchased the coolest Chicken T-shirt but backed out last minute in fear of being too cool. As we exited the historical part of town, we were thankful to have gotten an early start because it looked as though all of the tour boats had just returned from the retirement homes with boatloads of elderly tour groups. This was the time we decided to sit down for some lunch along the water, which was delicious.
With some time to spare a group of us went for a treat in some affogato which left Theo, Grace, Chloe and I some time to sit by the dock listen to music while talking about star signs and all that important stuff. We waited for our 2 pm pick-up time but started to worry since we were forced to wait until 2:05!!!! After we all were safely back on board our home, Vela, we all begrudgingly worked our way through our oceanography class of the day, but despite our fatigue, we managed to learn a lot. Immediately after I knocked out in my bed until just before dinner which is when we had a student presentation on one of our next land excursions in Cinque Terre joyfully brought to us by Dan and Brendan which included the signature Gelato research slide made by Ruby and Jesse. We then chowed down on some Chicken Tikka Masala made in the galley, which we contentedly filled our stomachs with. We ended dinner with our daily squeeze, where everyone shared their favorite part of their day as well as their favorite Vine reference, which brought back a lot of funny memories. Right now, as I write this blog, the rest of the crew is preparing the deck for our short passage to La Spezia in the morning, and James is hanging out behind me with his head on a slant, trying to get the medication to work on his ear infection. I guess I’ll take this time to thank everyone who worked to help get all of us here on Vela for this experience. I love every one of my crewmates and can’t wait to get infinitely closer over the next 80 days or so. Love you ma love you pops, signing off, for now, Vela out.