Location: Underway to Palau
Hello everyone, it’s me, Steph, again just a short 9 days since you last heard from me, but sadly this is also my last blog post of the semester. Regardless I’m sure my mom is currently overjoyed reading a blog from me yet again on this passage.
Today started off quite well with a 7 am sunrise jibe by watch team 2 right before we went back to bed for a while. Watch team 3 also got to jibe on their 8-12 watch this morning, so it was a morning full of sail handling, something that has become like second nature to all of the students over the last 60 days, but especially over the last two weeks of passage. A new bonus sail handling level was also unlocked today when we put the fisherman sail up for the first time this semester in an effort to catch as much wind as possible as we sail through the mildly windless doldrums. For lunch, we had Chloe’s famous crispy tofu, which was followed by seamanship, where we (including myself because I get to take Navmaster along with the students this summer) went over our mock exam in preparation efforts for our Navmaster exam on the 12th. Amanda then taught a marine biology class on fishes where the students learned about different fishes and how their body and fin shapes affect how they swim and move through the water. As we get closer to the equator, it is most definitely getting hotter and hotter, and so today’s deck showers were especially exciting because it was a much-needed cool-off for everyone up on deck. After our dinner or General Tso’s cauliflower, it was finally time to celebrate Pierce and Chloe, the birthday boy and girl, who were actually born on the same day in the same year, 19 whole years ago today. We sang Happy Birthday too many times to count, ate two (!!!) desserts of rice pudding and homemade lemon donut holes made by Morgan, and capped the celebration off with our squeeze question of what do you admire most about Pierce and Chloe. We also crossed an exciting milestone today, having officially sailed over 2000 miles on our passage as of this afternoon. Now it is officially Equator Crossing eve, and chatters of head shaving and excitement fill the cockpit. Tomorrow will undoubtedly be a special one (:
Also, hello to my Mom, Dad, and Shaun. I’ll see you all soon (:
Current position:
0041.43’S
15011.46’E
Picture 1: Watch team 2 dancing during power hour sunrise this morning
Picture 2: Putting up the fish this morning
Picture 3: The birthday boy and girl with their birthday donuts and baking extraordinaire