Location: Port Denarau, Fiji
In the last month, Argo has been very busy preparing herself for her purpose. She sailed almost 2000 nautical miles from Tahiti to Fiji, her bilges were emptied, spots re painted, and dive regulators serviced. All in preparation for what she does best: become a home for a group of strangers who she’ll bring across oceans and change in ways none of us can quite comprehend on day 1. The staff woke up this morning in a bit of disbelief that the program was starting today, and soon, the quiet hallways would be filled with duffle bags and laughter and scream-singing before the day’s end. After making Argo look her best, we were ready to open her doors and welcome 16 new nuggets into our floating home for the next 80 days; together, we’ll cross the equator, then do it again, and then one more time after that. We’ll get to dive on some of the world’s most lively coral reefs and (if all goes to plan) swim with mantas in every country we go to this summer. We’ll get weird at 3 am on watch under the brightest stars any of us have ever seen and scream ‘rainbow’ every single time we see one, no matter how high the number gets up. This trip is a special one for me. After over three years, it will be my last, and truly is a culmination of all of my time here. I remember the first time I was on Argo in Fiji three years ago. I knew my goal was to run a program here with seamester. It will be a bittersweet one, with a lot of ‘lasts,’ but I couldn’t be more excited to bring this group of strangers with us on, in my opinion, one of the best trips that we get to do here.
Meet the Staff!
Tomer – Captain, leadership instructor, secret language connoisseur, best friend with penguins, wind whisperer
Steph – Program manager, oceanography instructor, dive instructor, mate, “She’s only 28”, only works in streams of consciousness, just trying to live up to Allie’s blog writing (see Ocean Star’s blogs in 2 weeks time)
Gabe – Chief mate, seamanship instructor, dive instructor, scared of water slides, fruit game enthusiast, a part of the ship, part of the crew
Anna – Marine biology instructor, dive instructor, obsessed with grocery stores, granny until proven not, the tallest
Kackie – Mate, PSCT instructor, THE medic, beastly woman, kiki, khaki, car key, vroom vroom
Kelsey – Divemaster, blog extraordinaire, sidekick, good vibe bringer, ultimate cult member, free dives better than any of us
Meet our first student skipper!
Hi,
I’m Elanore! First day, first night, first skipper!
I arrived around noon today; some people were already unpacking. We were free to do anything before 5 pm, so some of us walked, ate, and started to meet one another. We saw our first sunset before supper. Afterward, we did the squeeze session to learn about everyone and were introduced to the job wheel. Even if she doesn’t like it, it is Steph’s birthday! Bonne fete!! We had a dinosaur cake to celebrate.
See you tomorrow!