Location: Drawaqa, Fiji
Today on Argo was a COMPLETELY REGULAR DAY. But if life is mostly banalities and you are not enjoying the banalities, then what are you doing????
Today we had breakfast followed by a lecture in Oceanography and then some charting in Seamanship. After that, we did drills for skill 7 of the Rescue Diver certification. Then we had dinner, followed by an exam in Marine Biology.
But I know this description leaves you horribly parched, thirsty for a fuller and more lush description of the textures of everyday life aboard SY Argo. And that is exactly what I’m going to give you…
Imagine:
You step out of the companionway, and before you is a writhing mass of suds and steel, slop, and filthy films of oil interrupted occasionally by crumbs of sustenance. You hear the mind-numbing cacophony of modern pop as SALTIES cackle and shout, “More soap! More soap!” groaning at greasy burned pots and gibbering helplessly as they plunge their hands again and again into a sloshing plastic cauldron of postprandial refuse. The FRESHY is blind with power, howling imperiously as she rejects pots back to the salties and slings others into the ineffective but enthusiastic hands of the sodden-rag-wielding DRYERS.
This dance with detritus is taking place all over the boat now; It is post meal chores, and the boat is truly alive. The galley is full of (HEAD and SOUS) CHEFS wiping down the counters of their oils slicks and spilled soy sauce. Meanwhile, one GOPHER scurries desperately to stow away each half-dried pot before the other gopher delivers another cascade of cookware from the dishy pit above.
Amongst the benches and tables ringing the galley, SALON STEWARDS cogs the floor on their hands and knees with broom and dustpan. From there, the forward companionway extends past the CABIN STEWARD to its terminus at the heads, where the HEADMASTERS do valiant battle with a single diurnal cycle’s worth of the crews most basic and essential business.
Zooming through the floorboards to the deck above, we see the DECKIES with white and blue brushes flashing across the deck as the harried BOSUN wrestles precious drops of freshwater through the knots and kinks of the hose and out onto the fallen chickpeas and blots of pesto that dot the cockpit.
But somewhere amidst all this clamor is the SKIPPER. A picture of perfect equanimity, the skipper types out the blog post, soberly relaying each precious nugget of the day’s events.
After reading this description, see if you can pick out your child and guess their job from the pictures above!
PS there is a picture of Cole with the rainbow, which is actually from yesterday, but it’s so cute I decided to cheat a little bit and include it anyway.