Location: The Azores
Hi, parents and families and such,
Last night, Joey, Nate, Zoe, Flo, Runyon, Charley, and Will had a nice Captain Phillips viewing party in the salon. If you’ve never seen it, I have a spoiler: There are no elders. I mean, did the main pirate really think that they were going to fly the elders out to meet him on a navy boat? Come on, son.
After that, most of us went to bed, but a few of us stayed to watch grownups. That movie is great. No complaints and no elders :). I fell asleep on the salon couch. For breakfast, our chefs, Jonathan, Joey, and Charley, woke up a little late but still made a mackin’ breakfast of eggs and sausages. After this, we took the challenge course led by Emma and Dan. We were split into three groups: Green (best team), Lucie, Nora, Joey, and I. Blue: Charley, Johnathan, Arabella, Flo, and Anda. And Pink: Nate, Will, Runyon, and Zoe.
The course started with a sponge relay where we had to sprint down a dock and fill a sponge with water, then run back and squeeze it into a mug. I don’t know if I was the only one, but running was a harsh reminder that my legs are used for something other than standing on the watch. My team then got our first clue and headed over to meet Shelby on the beach, where we completed a rope-minefield course where Lucie, Joey, and I led Nora, who was blindfolded, through the minefield and to the other side. Our next clue pointed to a church, but not the one we went to 3 different times because we thought Dan might’ve stepped out to use the bathroom. We met up with the Blue team and formed team Gru and realized that the church we were looking for was at the top of a massive hill, and we started our trek over to it. On our way, I stopped to ask a local if we were going the right way and how we could get to the church from the end of the road. He said there was a semi-steep staircase that led up to it, but we would be fine because we were young. Little did he know that I have the cardio of a 95-year-old man, so the group hauled ourselves up to the top to see Dan. Dan’s task was to film a 2-minute skit, and ours put Joey as a captain getting interviewed by me while Nora berated him with counters on how cool his passage was. After this we got our next clue, but might’ve known where to look thanks to blue team (love yall). To get to this one, we had another steep hike, but Joey and I had already done it with the rest of the guys on our first shore day, so we knew it. When we got up, Emma had a challenge to cross a river full of crocodiles using only “magic rocks” that sink when you stop touching them. On our first go, Joey threw in a rock and we lost it immediately, then it happened again (don’t remember how if I’m being honest) so we reset and went back to the drawing board. We came up with a solution that had 2 of us crossing at a time, and we lost one rock but made it all the way. Lastly, we had to raise the forward staysail and drop it. After all that, our team got awesome 3rd place! All jokes, though, I had a ton of (type 2) fun!
After this, we had shore time, and Lucie and I went out to give in our laundry. The laundry lady was very nice even though she was fed up with kids from our boat coming in to turn in the laundry. Then we did a little shopping and met up with Anda. We then got some lunch on Club Noval’s awesome balcony, enjoyed the view, and had a nice conversation. After this, we went back to the boat to get ready for sign-out night. I talked to my brother (shout out, Brendan) and headed over to the restaurant. The food was great, and the beer was even better. We then went to get gelato and had a funny conversation with our captain, Tom. After this, we returned to the boat, where some funny talks happened, and everyone went off to bed.
Big love out to all the parents from me,
Garrett out
Just wanted to come in here and say hi to my parents, I know boring right. Love you guys and I hope the dogs are good to (maybe less fat?).