Location: Underway to Gibraltar
Real life conversation that actually happened today, and no, I didnt hallucinate it:
Cate: Oh my gosh! DOLPHINS. They are so cute, and they are swimming so slowly, and oh my gosh, there are so many.
Calum: Cate, do you want to get into the water?
Cate: What?
Calum: Do you want to swim with them?
Cate: What!?
Calum: Everyone! Take off your PFDs. We are getting in!
Everyone: (shock)
(PSA: Cate actually died of joy and excitement, so this is her ghostwriting the blog)
Now, to everyone reading this: before the events of this afternoon, I wouldve begun this blog chronologically and spoken about the Squishicorn battle (between Gabe and Phoebe in their unicorn snuggies) that occurred at 8 am. Then I wouldve elaborated on the shenanigans of watch team two (Santana, Leo, Drew, Maya, Claire, and I), our impressive skill of somehow becoming weirder with each watch, and the wonderful weather. Finally, I wouldve explained the picture featuring perfectly painted finger and toe nails, which were Calum, Maya, Claire, and Is respective limbs. We had a nail party last night, and everyone, especially Calum, is now boootiful.
However, nothing about today is more noteworthy than the fact that we, yes, the crew of Argo, got to completely unplanned and spontaneously leap into the water, in our clothes, to swim with a pod of dolphins. It is important to note the upper left corner of the photo above (taken by Sammy) in which you can see a literal dolphin jumping into the literal air, literally 40 meters from us. Literally.
I really want you all to understand the full-caliber craziness that this was. We swam yesterday. And for the folks back at home, we rarely get to swim on passage. Last passage, which was 19 days, we only had the opportunity to swim once. This is because the conditionsweather, wind, swell, and the deadline for arrivalall have to match up perfectly in order for it to be safe and feasible to do so.
Yesterday, I asked Calum if we could swim, kind of on a whim and as a guilt trip, because I leave on day 50. And I was not expecting him to announce, 3 hours later at dinner, that we, in fact, were going to get to swim! I mean, what are the chances?
So, today, when Calum looked me dead in the face and told me to get in the water with the dolphins, I was really confused about whether or not he was pulling my leg. It wasnt until he yelled at everyone to take off their PFDs that I realized he was being serious, and we were not only getting to swim again, two days in a row on a passage thats only eight days, but we were getting into the water with dolphins.
(Refer to the blog title to envision the sounds the dolphins were making and the sounds that were escaping all of our mouths in excitement)
I could honestly go on for years, so Im going to cut myself off, but I will never be forgetting this. And this crew is forever indebted to Calum for letting us leap, once again, into the deep blue sea.
In other news, today we had Phoebes Emergency First Responder Course. This is one of many certifications we will gain aboard Argo. After Phoebes carefully crafted PowerPoint, we even had the chance to practice our newly learned skills. Whether it was log-rolling each other into the recovery position or performing CPR on mannequins, chaos ensued. You could say that, figuratively, all of us lost our heads . And you could also say the same thing for one of our dummies, who actually did lose his head. Whoops!
Meals were fantastic today, shout out to Celia, Charles, and Maria F our VHF radio exam went very well, thanks to Gabe, and we also had a fun squeeze question where we assigned each other aura colors, or colors that match our vibe and energy. We had a wide range of suggestions, including forest green for Will, sunset red for Celia, dusk purple for Lily, ocean blue for Alex, and yellow with orangy-red tips and turquoise orbs that float when you walk that also make the sounds tsktsktsk-nehehehe (this was Gabes description of my Aura for the record).
Currently, watch teams one and two are having a movie night. We are watching Surfs Up, eating yummy brownies, and laughing hysterically because somehow, my laptop started playing Kyrie in B minor (a choral song from high school) by accident. Then, this operatic piece began to glitch, and it was spazzing over scenes of the penguins, and everyone thought it was possessed. It is really difficult to accurately explain the silliness that goes on each day. Im realizing this, especially as I type out these happenings into words on a page and then read them back again. You guys must think were insane and you might be right.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that passage is awesome. We are having so much fun. And you might have to knock some sanity back into all of us once were home.
Love you, Mom, Dad, Granty, Remy, Mimi, Papa, Grandma, and Grampaaunts, uncles, best friends, Bri, etc. See you so soon.
And to everyone else, keep looking forward to more stories. We have a lot 🙂