Location: Underway to Mauritius
Hi everyone!!!
What a great day to be on passage. It’s been another warm, sunny day with a cool breeze. The wind has been slowly picking up today and is supposed to keep going in the next few days. I really thought that passage would be super difficult, and I’d be waiting for it to be over the whole time, but I’ve really been enjoying every day. Steph told me that she loves long passages and getting into a rhythm, and I almost didn’t believe her, but now I know what she’s talking about. I have no idea what day of the week or month it is or even what day of passage, but it’s kind of nice that way. It’s really amazing to remember we are in the middle of the Indian Ocean in 15,000 feet of water.
My day started off this morning at 4 a.m. when Ruby and Lina woke me up for watch. The cool air at night is always a special feeling since we have had so much time baking in the sun. It’s always nice to be able to wear a sweatshirt and not be sweating. We all guessed the time of the FORB (full orb) of when we thought the sun would come up, and I would’ve won if there wasn’t a teeny cloud in the middle. 🙁 The sunrise was my appreciation of the day. It was so beautiful. It started out with the sun hot pink, almost red in color, and the sky and water around it was all a pale light blue. It then went behind the clouds for a little while and was shooting down yellow strobe-like rays. While we were on watch, Jackson and David had a 2-3 hour long podcast/TED Talk-style conversation about a lot of things, but none of us had any idea what they were actually talking about. I got some cereal for breakfast this morning and was walking and balancing up the companionway stairs when my bowl hit the step, and half my cereal and milk dumped out everywhere. And unfortunately, Jake watched it happen, so I got absolutely roasted, and everyone heard about it, but that’s fair. After watched, I took a beautiful nap from 811 a.m. with my sleep mask and my stuffed walrus, and when I woke, I made a delectable coffee in the galley as Steph was making us all black bean burgers for lunch. Siena made the buns from scratch, and they were so delicious. I was talking to Lucia in the lunch line about how we were so pleasantly surprised about how good the food here is. I was not expecting three home-cooked meals per day, for example, black bean burgers and fries with fresh bread or muffins and cookies and pancakes. It’s really awesome.
We’ve had an unspoken rule where whoever’s on the helm wears the fuzzy cheetah cat ears, and it’s really funny to see who they look natural on. For example, it takes a few seconds after looking at Cristian even to notice the ears in his curly hair. It’s really funny. After lunch, during the cleanup, we listened to some black-eyed peas and Lady Gaga and doses and mimosas thanks to Ava, who I think has the best aux. My watch group had the 26 p.m., and it was so awesome. Our task was to put a double reef in the main sail, which means to shorten the sail to two levels. This task was not an easy feat, however, because in order to do this, we had to turn the boat 180 to point into the wind, take down the flying jib and the jib so they aren’t luffing like crazy, center the forward staysail and the main staysail because they are both attached to booms, then lower the mainsail enough to put the reef in. Then we reversed everything we did, pulled the main sail back up, let out the staysails, and raised both jibs. Everyone’s getting the sailing stuff down now, which is awesome because we can accomplish tasks like this so much smoother, which is really fun.
For dinner, we had some scrumptious curry, and for a squeeze question, I went with, “If the person to your right was a color, what color would they be?” Some that I remember that are awesome are Daniel being terracotta, Tom being Forest Green/ Lilac, Zoe being “Lil Red,” and Ruby being kind enough to say that I was Snot Green. So thoughtful! Dinnertime is one of me and Siena’s favorite time of day, when everyone’s hanging out in the cockpit talking and laughing, and the sun is getting lower in the sky. Then it sets during the cleanup, and everybody is happy and having great conversations and bursting out laughing; there’s really never a dull moment.
Currently, it’s 8:30, and watch team 3 is up at the helm. Several people are asleep in preparation for waking up for watch tonight/tomorrow am, and several more are studying in the salon. Jake and Tom have their daily Mario-kart tournament; I’m sure you’ve heard by now that it is a very serious ongoing battle and debate of who is better, even though I think Tom beats Jake 90% of the time despite the Nintendo Switch belonging to Jake. The mario-kart music has become a background noise in our everyday lives. Since we’re about to hit the halfway mark of the trip, we’ve had a heavy workload in the past week, so everyone has been studying in every spare free time they get. It’s so awesome how much everyone is so excited to learn, study, and do well here. It makes it so enjoyable, which I never thought I would say.
I hope everyone at home is doing well, and whoever is reading this blog, you all have such awesome children/siblings/friends, or however you are related to the people on this trip! I am so lucky to have such great company and make such wonderful friends; I wouldn’t want to be stuck on a boat for 90 days with anyone else.
I hope you enjoyed the blog!!! <3
-Margaret
Mom, Dad, Carlton, and Henry, I miss you guys so much!! And Auntie Karie, Uncle Ken, Grandpa George, and Grandma Cindy, I love you all and can’t wait to tell you everything! I’ve been journaling every day so I can remember things to tell you. In 12ish days, we’ll be in Mauritius, and I’ll call you as soon as I get service. I miss Poppy the most, though, sorry. Please give her a bunch of hugs and pets and treats for me. I love you all!!!<3