Location: Panama City, Panama
Hello from the Pacific!! We got through the last three locks of the canal yesterday, so today is our first full day in the Pacific, and maybe it’s just me, but I swear the water looks different. You could feel the level of hype I was feeling about this, literally–I woke everyone up blasting the song Cream. Though I can’t say my energy was matched at 7:00 am, by exactly 7:04, everyone was up and dancing as well. It may have been our first day in the Pacific, but after Gabe’s Israeli breakfast, it was feeling more like the red sea. Regardless of location, day 38 was a good one here on Argo. After breakfast cleanup, we buckled down for class–seamanship and marine bio–which was both weird and nice after the two hectic canal crossing days. In seamanship, we got our VHF (not to be confused with VHS, the Thomas Rhett song I break out into just about every time VHF is mentioned) radio exams back, and in marine bio, we started a new unit about taxonomy of the animal kingdom We had little free time before lunch, most of us spent this time in the salon working on our oceanography literature reviews, which, did I mention are due tonight? Not that I waited until the last minute to write it or anything, but if I had, I imagine it would have been quite stressful. Lunch and clean up was as usual and was followed by more free time/study hall; the frantic typing that occurred in the salon all afternoon would have made you think the whole boat waited to start their lit reviews until the day it was due, which, totally was not the case at all. (We’re good students, I swear, sailing is just a LOT more fun than school). Disrupting our afternoon study hall for a select lucky few of us, myself included, was a VHF radio exam retake. The second time must be the charm because I can now proudly say every student on board is VHF certified. The afternoon passed quickly, and at dinner, we all enjoyed a dinner of soup; what kind of soup, you ask? Not sure exactly; I’m not even sure head chef Gabe knows, but that doesn’t matter; it was so fricken good. The timing was perfect because just as we wrapped up dinner and squeeze, Lolo and Steph, who had been out provisioning all day, arrived carrying just about an entire store’s worth of groceries. Dinner cleanup was put on the backburner; all hands on deck were needed to begin the massive feat of sanitizing and unloading all the food. What could have been a tedious multi-hour project became a multi-hour provisioning party thanks to speakers, big bootie remixes, and some creative unloading strategies. It was pretty much the biggest game of dodgeball and spud I’ve ever played, but instead of a dodgeball, it was played with the most cans I’ve ever seen in my life. Not that anyone still needed to work on their lit reviews (the 10 pm deadline was quickly approaching), but if they had, that would have been what we did after dinner and the provisioning party. As the night got later, the salon slowly cleared out, and day 38 was officially over.
ps hi to my family, tell Lola I miss her the most. xoxo renee
pictured:
1. how many cans can you fit under someone’s bed?? Izzy and I now know it’s a LOT
2. said amount of cans
3. if anyone remembers that oscar selfie, this is Argo’s take. arguably more iconic
4. Renee, ruth, and Riley: the 3 besties
5. Trevor and nat relying on some instant coffee to get through that lit review grind
6. mid lit review grind shot of Niko and mac
7. Gordan Ramsey and Bobby Flay.