Location: Underway to the Caribbean
Last night was by far the biggest party to happen on the Atlantic. Talk of it began long before this passage even started, but the night of 72 was when it all went down. All boats passing by Argo that saw the flashing lights or heard the bumping music were surely jealous not to have been invited.
After dinner and cleanup, rave prep began! We set the clocks back at eight and used our free hour, 7-8:30, to live it up. Decorations and lighting went up (signs by Taylor for our DJs: Master Oogway, CD Playa, and WorlWideWob, and lighting by Sienna and Erik using everyone’s headlamps) while everyone got their rave fits and glitter on. Master Oogway (aka DJ Callid, aka Calli) started the night off with her set. The crowd cheered when pikajoe walked in the room. Music was blasting, and lights were flashing. We were going feral. Definitely a much-needed break during this long passage! If u closed your eyes, it almost felt like we were actually at the club. The sway of the boat added to the feeling for sure
At one point, a red light appeared on the ground, so naturally, I beheaded Nessie (Greta’s plastic baby doll she received for Secret Santa that has become our “deep sea baby”) and stuck it inside her head, and so rave beacon baby was mmll mll borleeeeen (bioluminessie). CD Playa (Caroline) was up next and absolutely killed her set, during which Wednesday made her entrance (lots of cheering again)! Lots of singalong songs during this bit of the night. It was awesome. I popped up the companionway for some air with Gabby, and the vibe up on deck was completely different than that of below. While we were 2-6ing to songs, the instructors were 2-6ing lines. I felt a bit useless and awkward just watching them, so I went back down to party when WorldWideWob started his set, you know, the crowd went wild! The highlight of the night was when he played an “I follow Rivers” mix (the Deep Sea Baby song)! When the clock hit 8:30, my watch team (#3) had to go up on deck, and so Argo’s first rave came to an end, but not without a finale of “love on the brain,” which ended with a group hug of those of us still left in the salon and some tearsa truly sweet moment to close the night.
Last night’s 8(:30)-12 watch was certainly the most glittery and dressed-up watch ever. Seeing everyone’s sparkle in the light of the headlamps while we worked lines was kinda funny. Got some studying done for our Marine Biotest, and then towards the end of watch, Captain Cal read us the sweetest book, “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse”, a memory I’ll hopefully never forget.
The 8-12 watch this morning was good as well. When we came up on deck, watch team 2 was putting up the flying jib (thanks, guys), and we’ve been sailing nice and smooth all day. I’ll be honest: when I remembered that I’m skipper, I kinda groaned because I figured it would be another regular day and the blog would only consist of what we ate and class, but oh, was I wrong. On watch, we did a bit more studying, criminal profiled everyone, and tried the canned apples (actually really surprisingly good. The peaches have obviously been the best, but do not try canned mango whatever you do).
Lunch was curry on rice, and after cleanup, we took our marine bio test. Here’s to hoping we all did well! After marine bio, we had leadership (our first real leadership class in a while!), where we played a game called “spaceship.” the scenario was that Earth was going to die, and there was only one spaceship that could save just ten people. We all drew roles (gender, age, and occupation) out of a hat and had 1 minute to introduce ourselves and fight for why we deserved to be on that spaceship. It was a pretty brutal battle. Some roles made more sense than others; for example, the musician and science teacher were eliminated pretty quickly, while the chef/gardener and engineer were kinda obvious to save. Somehow, I finagled my way on as a lawyer the ending crew was Sean (gardener/chef), Sienna (computer scientist), Taylor (neuroscientist), Fifi (writer), Greta (surgeon), Miles (robot enthusiast), Erik (nursing student), Del (pilot), Daisy (engineer) and me (lawyer). It doesn’t make complete sense, but overall, it’s a sensible crew.
While the game was wrapping up, Cal called “fish on” down the companionway, and the majority of us rushed up on deck to see. Three fish were caught! I didn’t run up on deck until they called down that one of the fish spits up an octopus! Anna did a dissection of it, and we got to hold the eye and lens and play with the beak. It was awesome. I’ve also been informed that one of the fish had a nice fat parasite on it, and the others had worms in their stomachs. After cleaning, they were dressed for dinner. Will, Taylor, Cal, Fifi, and Sienna ate a bit of raw fish right off the body! Now that’s some really fresh Atlantic sushi!!
Also, after all the excitement, EFR groups 2 and 3 passed their scenarios!
Dinner was fresh fish, potatoes, and some beanpaste.
Del and I just surprised everyone with deep-fried Oreos! and Miles handed around a goblet of cold water (a rarity in these parts). As the passage is coming to a close, we’re all becoming a bit sentimental with certain things and keep talking about the first days of the program; it’s hard knowing that in less than 20 days, I’ll have to be away from these people and this ship we’ve all learned to call home. It’ll be interesting to see what these last days bring!!