Location: 09,01.63 N ; 54,34.32 W
Hello family and friends! We have now been sailing smoothly without the power of the engine for over 24 blissful hours. This are some of the best sailings we have encountered thus far, and it is definitely a special way to spend some of our last few days of long passages. We should be arriving in Barbados on Friday night or Saturday morning, so parents and loved ones- you can expect to hear from students relatively soon, that is, once they have time to call or connect to wifi!
Today started for me at 3:30 am when I awoke to Marie-Louise telling me, “Buenos Dias!” One of the things I love most about life on Argo is that we never need to set alarm clocks- you can always rely on your shipmates for a good wake-up. It was the first four-hour watch with my new watch team (Team 3), and we spent it getting to know each other better by telling scary stories under the stars. These spooky stories definitely put some of us on edge, especially when team leader Calum started re-enacting the sounds from the stories in real-life. We were lucky to have a beautiful sunrise as we put up the flying jib for the day, all before we settled in the cockpit with our morning bowls of “boat-meal.”
The rest of the day consisted of two great meals made by William and his sous chefs, the first afternoon of Open Water dive theory classes, and the start of a game called Assassin. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean there’s someone actually dangerous running around Argo, but it does mean that everyone is watching their back for the time being. The best way to describe it is like a real-life version of the board game Clue. Everyone has a secret assassin who can only “kill” you with a certain weapon and in a certain location. Unfortunately, I was one of the first to perish only a few hours into the game, but it’s likely this will continue at least until we reach Barbados.
Barbados will mark a bittersweet moment for the Argo crew. In many ways, our arrival is highly anticipated, as every stop on land has been so far, for the prospect of walking around, eating ice cream, and maybe getting a little extra sleep. On the other hand, arriving in Barbados will mark the end of long passages for us. If you haven’t noticed from other blog posts or from the group vote to skip our short stay in French Guiana, this crew is quite fond of life underway. There is something about the way we have grown accustomed to the days and nights that blur together, only differentiated by the changing color of the sky or the number on our watches. The passage of time truly is difficult to explain, and it may be something you will never fully understand, no matter how many stories your student tells you when they return home. While I can almost fathom the fact that today is Day 50 based on how far we have traveled, I still struggle to comprehend the fact that I have spent 50 nights in my bunk onboard. Maybe that’s because most nights lack more than four hours of consecutive sleep due to the watch schedules, or maybe I just can’t imagine how soon it is that we will be packing up our things and heading back to our old beds. Regardless, reaching Barbados is a huge milestone, and we are all very excited about the activities Steph has planned, as well as some free time ashore. So far, it sounds like we will have a Leadership activity, a day of surfing, and of course, the Open Water diving course. This will be a great taste of all the fun the Caribbean will soon bring us as we begin island hopping passages.
That’s all for now!