Location: Underway to Dominica
This is your captain speaking well, not really. Hello, people. I am Mani. I like to think that I’m a co-captain now because I took it upon myself to man the helm for 24 hours straight after delivering supplies at Union Island and heading to Dominica, where we are staying for the next few days. You may be wondering why I decided to stay up for all that time. Well, the best answer I can think of is that I like to push my limits and thought it might be fun, but I blame Nick, our actual captain. He was the one to make a joke about me doing 24 hours after I totaled 10 hours of helm time over the course of 2 days; unfortunately, I took this joke as a challenge and wasn’t afraid to back down. I am typing this immediately after completing my mission and getting us safely to Dominica. I will keep this short because. I. Am. Exhausted. Even that is an understatement. There were several ups and downs during the hours. Nevertheless, I persevered. Being stuck in one place allowed me to see things I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. The three watch teams rotated every 3 hours, and It was definitely a struggle when it was complete silence in lulls during the night as everyone tried their best to stay awake and complete the duties for their shifts, but I can’t explain how fun it was when everyone was rested and came with energy to help keep me going strong. All the conversations I had with everyone, all the laughs we shared, and it especially kept me going when everyone periodically came by to check in on me. I also think I’m a lucky charm because I’ve been around to witness many of the special occurrences, such as in the early morning, we got to see three sperm whales and a pod of dolphins very close to our vessel; I was told that these sightings are quite rare in the Caribbean. The excitement of the sighting helped me push till lunch at 12 pm when everyone finally woke up and came outside to eat together. The rest of the afternoon is a bit of a blur, but I do remember during Nick’s Nautical Science (Seamanship) class, he made everyone run around the boat as he named certain parts of it, such as the lines, hooks, etc. In order to memorize each part of the boat. It was quite funny watching everyone run back and forth, trying to figure out exactly which part he was talking about. Then we had a bit of free time until dinner at 6 pm. Let me tell you, those last 4 hours were the longest, again lots and lots of conversations with everyone, but it seemed like the 24 hours would never be over. Once dinner was devoured, it was time for our daily squeeze. For those that don’t know, we like to sit together after every dinner and say one thing we were appreciative of the day, along with a question of the Skipper’s choosing. My question was, name a time when you stepped outside of your comfort zone and or when you pushed yourself to your limits. Many answered that this whole trip was out of their comfort zone, which I can agree with. I, along with many others, have never ventured this far away from home, let alone with 16 other strangers. This trip has brought together so many different walks of life from all over the world. Not only that, all these strangers bonded with each other in such a short period of time that after the very first night, we were basically best friends. I can’t thank these friends enough, including Nick, Meg, Allie, and Ben, for helping each other through our difficult times, such as pushing me through today. Alright that’s enough from me, I need to get some sleep! Goodnight, everyone; I’ll be back for my next blog.