Location: 36º24.962'N, 46º28.290'W
“WHALE! WHALE! WHALEWHALEWHALE!!!” There you go, everyone; now you get the same greeting I was fortunate enough to receive after my 12 am-4 am watch. Usually, someone screaming down the companionway would not be my ideal wakeup, but when what’s being screamed is “whale!” even I won’t complain. Watch team 1, newly formed with students Charley, Nora, Will, and Anda joining Dan (the person who saw the whales first) and Mac as staff leads, spot a pod of over 20 pilot whales off Vela’s starboard side at about 10 am and (thankfully) they were not quiet about their exciting find. All of us, even the head and sous chefs who were already hard at work on their bagels (more on that in a little bit), raced to put on our PFDs and hurried onto the deck to see these beautiful creatures. Now, I’m sure that, like me before this trip, when most of you picture the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, you’re probably imagining some pretty big waves. Not to say we haven’t had our fair share of wind, but today, the water was, in Charley’s words, “like silk.” Other terms I heard tossed around included “mirror,” “pond-y,” and simply “flat.” Regardless of terminology, it’s safe to say this is the calmest day we’ve had so far. While this meant that the sails would have to stay down, it did give us a perfect viewing of the whales and even allowed Tom to get the drone out to fly it over to them. The glassy water meant we all watched the whales for almost an hour, with squeals of excitement and the occasional “oooh!” at a whale’s reappearance being the only sounds to interrupt the surreal moment. While it may seem like the day couldn’t get any better, dare I say, “But wait, there’s more.” I had gone below deck when Flo, with her typical excitement, told everyone that we would be snorkeling with them. She said it with a little jump up and down and one of the widest grins I’d ever seen and I swear I don’t think I saw that smile leave her face all day. Also, let me just repeat that since I can barely believe it, and I got to experience it firsthand: the entire crew of Vela would be snorkeling with a pod of pilot whales in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I would say I’m getting chills just thinking about it, but truthfully, this boat is too warm for actual chills. I’ll call them figurative chills. We all put our swimsuits on and dug around the lazarette (“az,” if you like all of us and love giving everything a fun, silly little nickname) for our snorkel gear, which had been packed away since we began our passage. Then, we launched our dinghy—something that is usually a bit of a chore, but today was done with a fair bit of excitement, understandably so—and split ourselves into groups of five to head over towards the whales. Now, if any of you are lucky enough to swim with wild whales in the middle of an ocean, let me give you this critical tidbit that we heard over and over: be. quiet. And, let me also tell you that, for a group of 13 high school and college-aged kids, this was a pretty big ask. But, again, like being okay with the wakeup, there’s very little that the crew of Vela won’t do for a pod of whales. Despite my best efforts to be part of the first group to go out to the whales, I was placed in group 2. However, this meant I got to see the absolute best reactions from group 1, with Nate, Joey, Charley, Michelle, and Runyon returning with smiles that might have made the already sunny day even brighter. I know it sounds cliche, but I promise there is nothing like seeing the people you’ve gotten exponentially closer to over the course of three weeks smiling so big. After group 1 got back, it was time for group 2 of myself, Flo, Will, Anda, and Shelby (with Dan again as surface support and dinghy driver) to go get this once-in-a-lifetime experience. We quietly motored over to where the whales were still relaxing and got into the water to share the space with them. Yes, we got into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, with nothing but horizon, 23 whales, and Vela to keep us company, and swam. Group 3 was next to go out, and they were lucky enough to actually see the whales underwater (Emma swears it happened even though the GoPro didn’t catch it. Personally, I believe her, but there is the saying “pics or it didn’t happen,” so it’s still up for debate). Group 4 was last, this one made up of staff—including Captain Tom! If we were going to take over the boat, this would have been the time to do it while he was off the boat. Oh well.—and Jonathan. Upon their return, we got another “but wait; there’s more” moment: now we would get to swim around Vela! This meant flips off the bowsprit (big shoutout to Garrett for doing his first front flip and to Mac for teaching everyone about the Lemondrop method of entering the water) and a much-needed refresh for everyone. Despite living in an endless world of the ocean for the past twelve days, this was the first time wwe’dgone in the water all passage, and boy, was it wonderful. We took pictures and videos, listened to music, all got a little more sunburned than usual, and kept just repeating, “This is unreal. I love today.”” and jumping up and down with each other like we were all little kids in a candy store. When the inevitable end to our fun was called, we were treated to another special part of the day: Emma and her sous chefs Joey and Runyon’s homemade (“oat made,” perhaps?) bagels! Even though lunch was two and a half hours later than usual, I think I speak for everyone when I say it was well worth the wait. We had options including cinnamon sugar, everything, sesame, and even crushed cereal. In fact, I even heard Will claim it to be “the best bagel” he had ever eaten. After lunch, we had to get back into our routine a little bit more, but there was nothing that could dull the energy on the boat. Fittingly, oceanography students learned about energy transfers today (all of us were great examples of this as we radiated our energy and transferred excitement onto one another all day). Then we had NavMaster, where we practiced our running fix plotting and learned how to determine if our boat’s compass is off. Of course, VVela’scompass would *never* be off because she is the most perfect and flawless boat ever. The class finished with three prolonged horns, and, for those of you who don’t know, that means man overboard. But, for any parents starting to worry that their child accidentally made their way back into the water today, fear not! It was just a drill. We got to practice what each watch team would do in the case of an actual emergency, and then we had another drill, this time for a fire. We took out our big firefighting hose and sprayed the Atlantic (you’ve heard about fighting fire with fire; now get ready for fighting water with water!). After the fire drill, it was time for a fantastic dinner of rice bowls with all sorts of toppings, accompanied by an extra special guest: another incredible sunset. TTonight’ssqueeze (you know, that sappy sweet thing we do where we all hold hands and say what we appreciated about the day) question was about what people have learned on Vela. We had answers ranging from Ara and Lucie learning how to sail to Anda learning how to make coffee to Andy saying he has gotten better at self-reflection over the course of the trip. I loved hearing everyone’s response, and naturally, we had to end the perfect day with the perfect count-off. Numbers zero through twenty were spoken with flawless ordered precision, and despite my best wishes, I don’t know if any future countoff will come close to that one. I think I speak for everyone when I say we all have the time of our lives, and today will be a day we remember forever. In fact, I did have multiple people tell me that I was so lucky to write today’s blog, so just know we’re all aware of how special this is. I am sending big hugs to everyone on land – Mom and Dad, please be sure to give Sampson and Sadie some extra love from me and let PW know he is still my favorite fish (even over the big Atlantic ones!). And, though I don’t know if it’s possible, I hope all of you readers have days as great as ours today 🙂