Location: Guadalupe to Antigua
Excitement and the smell of Maddy’s famous cinnamon rolls fill the air early this morning as Argo’s crew gears up for the challenge they have been working this whole semester for (which they just found out about two days ago), the student-led passage! Argo has been taken over by Zac as Captain, Talia as Chief Mate, Eli as Engineer, and Cecily and Olympus as the trusty Navigators. Straight after breakfast, we raised the anchor and set course for Antigua. Testing the crew’s attention to detail and a bit of their patience, the staff came armed full of silly questions, loose PFD straps, and trickery. With about 15 kts on the beam, Zac and Talia made the call to put up full canvas one last time on our final passage. During sail raises, Kackie eased the downhaul with her mouth, Nicole took a nap in a coil, and Meg was just “an overall menace”.
For lunch, Chef Maddy prepared a watermelon, rocket, and feta salad, which was refreshing and delicious. Since we were zooming along, Zac decided to split us up into watch teams for only 1 hour and 15-minute watches for the rest of the passage to Antigua. During watch team 2’s shift, they even got welcomed to the island by a pod of resident pilot whales. All of a sudden, it was time to have all hands on deck and strike all six sails and drop the anchor simultaneously. Even though Zac had the entire mainsail drooping on his face and he couldn’t see a thing, we still made it safe and sound. After putting the boat to bed, everyone jumped in for a celebratory swim. For dinner, we feasted on lentil soup with naan bread, and Kara even surprised us with brownies for dessert. Even though they faced many challenges today, Argo’s crew should be proud of their accomplishments and a successful final passage.