Location: Leaving Palau
Today, the new 40-dayers are starting their first passage, while the 80-dayers will be continuing their journey with their second.
After a tiresome night with me only getting 4 hours of sleep, due to a good late-night conversation with Tougy and some fantastic hot chocolate, paired with a 3-4 A.M. night watch, I was exhausted. However, I wasn’t going to let that stop me from having a good time. So, I started the morning off by blasting the song Gas Pedal through the hallways to wake everyone up while Jo danced to the music, ensuring everyone woke up on time.
We all had cereal for breakfast, courtesy of Imogen, and after came the preparation for the 3-day passage we were about to start. Everyone set off to their tasks, filling in when needed, mainly focusing on the copious amounts of food to store that had appeared last night while we were enjoying being on land for the last time in a few days.
After we got underway early this afternoon, everyone got sorted into their watch groups, and then we worked on different drills for all kinds of emergencies. The group I was sorted into is in charge of mainly the sailing aspect of the emergencies, and as someone who has never sailed before, I can definitely say that I feel a little overwhelmed, but I’m confident I will learn a lot while here. The emergency drills we did were about having a man overboard, a fire, and abandoning ship, whether because of flooding or a collision with another object. The fire exercise was really cool to me because I got to hold a fire hose and spray it into the ocean while switching back and forth between settings for the area surface of the spray.
I was sorted into the third watch group, meaning that I was a part of the first watch of my journey as a 40 dayer, which was awesome that I got to be a part of that. While on watch, we saw three whales that Sam said she thought were sperm whales. One of them even jumped out of the water with its tail on display. As someone from Alaska, I’ve definitely seen that before, but it’s not a sight that gets old very quickly, so I was grasping along with everyone else.
Dinner tonight was one of my favorites that we’ve had so far for one particular reason: it was Stephanie’s birthday, and she’s just turned 21! Jo and Garrett worked on a Nutella cake for her, and we all sang her a very happy birthday in the cockpit while surrounded by a glorious sunset.
The question I asked at Squeeze tonight was “If you could bring anyone on Vela to go on this journey with you, who would you choose at why?” Unsurprisingly, a lot of the answers I heard were loved ones that we missed. Personally, I chose my mom because not only is she my best friend, but she also always tries her hardest to make the best out of a tough situation. I really miss her. Mom, if you’re reading this, just know I’m thinking of you every day and I can feel your love from across the world. You’re the strongest woman I know. Thank you for having me as a daughter.