Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Three months ago, Argo was tied up in Bali. We were about to begin a study abroad program, a semester on the ocean, where university students take 12-semester credits. On paper, our program sounds very exciting, a fun thing to check off the bucket list, and an experience to remember fondly as you begin your adult life. All of that is true, but the paper is flat; the voyages our students embark on are deep. Time passes differently on Argo, and a semester lasts a lifetime. The world looks different from Argo and cannot be fully expressed in words or pictures. The stories that our students tell of their adventures are more than stories; they are legends. The legend of Fall 24, Bali to Cape Town, is a uniquely special one, dreamlike and otherworldly, full of unprecedented happenings and animal encounters, a story that will ripple through Seamester history and all of our lives.
It starts with the water maker out of order. Broken machinery would prove to be a theme on this trip. Kiley brought us the part we needed, and we moved off the dock and anchored in a picturesque bay in Lombok to teach beginning scuba diving. We moved to Sumbawa and were almost swallowed by a playful whale shark. We walked amongst dragons and dove through the Golden Passage and the Pink Beach while swimming with mantas. Ava and Hannah began planning trivia nights and their drama about UFO abductions: Come With Me, Youll Want To.
Along the way, we picked up Clayson.
Back in Bali, we watched the fire dancers on the cliffside temple while the monkeys broke our sunglasses. Bodhi overstayed his visa but didnt get deported. Clayson had chewed through all the milk cartons. We set out for Christmas Island with the most perfect sailing conditions youll ever experience. Christmas Island didnt let us in, and we drifted offshore all day while we went diving during passage. The perfect conditions continued to Cocos (Keeling), the only island in the world with parentheses. After a hornet-filled challenge course, we befriended a wayward 7-year-old boy and camped out on Direction Island, sleeping in hammocks to stay safe from the coconut crabs.
We set out onto the Indian towards Mauritius, and Clayson chewed through the HDMI cords. A wave came through the gopher hatch and drowned the life from our oven. Clayson ate two doses of poison. We sailed along through the Lemurian Diamond, a place I made up for fun. The wizards of ancient Lemuria came to judge us as we crossed, and Amanda offered up the body of Clayson as a sacrifice. Charlie wished he could sail eternally on a ghost ship like the Flying Dutchman. The wizards werent satisfied.
The propeller shaft broke off.
We sailed the rest of the way to Mauritius, without an engine, in the pre-industrial way. We learned we didnt need to motor and anchored under sail. The tugboat pulled us misaligned and bent our bobstay against the dock. Argo got pulled out of the water, and we moved into apartments. We iron chef-ed and island toured, and we went dinghy sailing and diving.
Argo went back into the water.
Drazka helmed for 12 hours straight, including while we put up the main sail. We made it to Richards Bay and went on a safari. We saw giraffes, buffalo, kudu, and rhinos and ran aground on top of a hippo. Back on the dock, some monkeys stole the bananas from the galley. When the wind allowed, we left for Durban.
The steering cable snapped.
We made it to Durban and sailed with the locals. We made it to East London and had Thanksgiving and a Braai. We made it to Port Elizabeth and didnt do much of anything. Ali set off the fire alarm while making popcorn. She also figured out I was ticklish and began hunting me.
Now were in Cape Town. Weve been sandboarding, wine tasting, and hiking. Weve seen seals and penguins and ostriches and baboons. Today, we had our tearful goodbyes, so the story ends.
All of that is only words and cant really tell the whole story. Sometimes, we write poems for the final blog, but instead, Ill quote some poems and lines from our students out of the Argo guest book:
I am happy and bring happiness
I am strong and gain strength
I am the master of my sea and can share wisdom with those who seek it
-Travis
I wasted all the shooting stars on this voyage,
On things that I thought were important,
On things that I thought would make me happy,
On things that were so far away
Yet, I slowly realized that all I needed was not in the sky,
But down here,
With the sails that Ive raised,
With the watches Ive sat through,
With the laughter Ive shared,
Creating a brief pause in my samsara,
Where,
I should have wished for this to never end.
So it goes
-Philip
Dont wait until day 50 to hug people because, by the time day 90 comes around, youll never want to let them go.
-Ainsley
Please enjoy the official illustration of our legend, courtesy of Juliette.