Location: The Atlantic Ocean
I started my day at 22:45 sharp after a long night of chatting with the gang ( Joey, Garrett, Charley, and Florence). I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to make my first coffee of the day before my 12-4 watch. As I walk into the salon (boat living room) I am greeted by my old friend Will, turns out neither one of us had any sleep last night. We sat down and drank coffee, waiting for what would be a very long watch. At 2345 sharp, Nora, Charley, Will, and I met up at midships (middle of the boat, whatcha think it was) to get a short pep talk from our watch team leaders Mystic Mac and Dan the Man. We move to the cockpit; we relieve the previous watch team and proceed to start our watch. I thought this watch would be like any other watch: long, repetitive, wacky games to keep us entertained, running out of topics to talk about stuff like that. But our good friend Nate decided to join us on watch, and let me tell you It doesn’t matter what time of day; he never fails to keep you entertained and does a fantastic job at putting a smile on your face. The next hour and a half was filled with laughter and joy, so much to the point where our stomachs started to hurt. Eventually, he hit the sheets. I checked the time and come to find out that almost half the watch was over, I couldn’t believe it. It felt as if only 20 minutes had passed. It’s weird how time is like that; it makes you appreciate the little things in life. Talking about time (Sorry I forgot what happened the rest of the watch, we put up the flying jib. Typical stuff..) On Vela’s radar, it tells us our ETA, depending on how fast we are going. I remember looking at those numbers every day since the first day of passage. Twenty days, 19, 18, then it would jump to 25 and back down to 17. It feels like we’ve been on passage forever, yet it feels like we just started passage yesterday, and now we are almost in the. Azores. As I am writing this now, the ETA is three days, halfway through the trip already. It feels like I’ve known these guys for years, even though I met all of them three weeks ago. Alright, back in the day, I was woken up to lots of yelling, “WHALE, WHALE, WHALE.” Everybody starts running up on deck, Will chose to stay asleep for whatever reason. We all got on deck. I look at everybody’s faces, and thought it was hilarious, half of us looked like we are having the biggest hangover ever or had just woken up from a decade long coma there were, drool marks, hard squinting, and many many yawns. Turns out there was no whale so we all hit the sheets extra hard this time while lunch was on its way. 12:00, We all gather up in the cockpit for lunch after getting hit by a few squalls. Mac, Will, and Andy had made us some very tasty risotto. A big debate was then started about how risotto was a European idea of fried rice no one had my back. The rest of the afternoon was going to be big for all of us because we had many exams coming up before we arrived in the Azores, so we spent the rest of the day studying for our upcoming papers and tests. As dinner time arrived, we all gathered up on deck for the chicken and fried rice that was made for us; we chatted and ate, living in the moment the usual routine on passage; a big topic tonight was what type of parent the person to your right would be like. You already know I had to work my magic and end the day with a classic LEFT SIDE STRONG SIDE chant, but unlike last time, I decided to add a little bit of salt on top. This is how it went. “When I say left side, you say strong side. LEFT SIDE.” “STRONG SIDE.” “LEFT SIDE.” “STRONG SIDE.” I then said, “WE’RE ALL WE GOT.” The rest of the group proceeded to say, “SHEE, WE ALL WE NEED.” Let me tell you, it was perfect. We ended the day with a classic Atlantic sunset. To all the parents, I want to thank all you guys for having such wonderful children, this boat couldn’t have been any better. To Sam, Mac talks about you a lot; he misses you a lot and wishes you could be on this trip; thank you for letting him come abroad. To Kelly, Even though Dan doesn’t have many photos of you, he has countless stories of you guys, and just the way he talks about you, I can tell he loves you a lot. To Smash, Tom is super excited to see you in Rome and always has the brightest smile when I ask him about you. Mike, thank you for giving me this opportunity to be onboard Vela. I have made lifelong friends in this program, and I will have countless memories here that will be told to the next generation of my family. Thank you, Jim; love ya. Thank you once again to all the families for raising such wonderful children. And, Hi Mama!! Happy happy birthday! Today I saw rainbows, a whale, the beautiful glowy sunrise and the pink and orange sunset and I thought of you in every moment. I love you across this big blue ocean and back a billion times. I hope today was incredible for you, too. I miss you and can’t wait to talk to you in a few days! LOVE, Emma