Location: Underway to Essaouria
Day 43 is coming to a close here on Vela as we get closer to Essaouira on our passage from Tangier. I started the day off strong as skipper; forgetting to wake everyone up was especially sweet, but when I did come to, I played everyone our favorite Star-Spangled Banner for a proper American wake-up. In the Galley, our head chef Theo and his sous chefs Grace N. and Smash cooked up our lunch, which was a delicious chicken couscous dish with a side of butternut squash and zucchini, which we happily filled our bellies with. After lunch came our daily clean up where our dishy pit (Max, Mac, Michelle, Talia, Ben, James, Watson, Liam, and Chloe) battled the waves while cleaning lunchs dishes on deck. Some fared better than others as one big wave sent Max and all the dishes tumbling over toward the lifelines while the others could do nothing but laugh. It wasnt all fun in games after that. In an attempt to save Bens computer from getting soaked in boiling water from the tea kettle, which had broken free from its stand and was wreaking havoc on the galley, I completely ate it, accidentally stepping on the lid to the compost bin, which slipped out from under my feet. Chloe, who had seen Max tumble, and now I was particularly enjoying it.
When we were all done with cleanup, we had a Marine Biology lecture which is always very informative unless the boat is rocking you to sleep, we did our best to stay awake and finally finished our marine mammals section of the class which we will be having an exam on in the coming week. After Marine Bio was Seamanship, where Big Mac presented a video documenting the sailing experience from 1902, which was extremely humbling given the common safety practices we use nowadays. After classes were done, we went right back to watch, or if it wasnt your watch, you had some free time to either nap or do some work on our literature reviews. Mac, on the other hand, took this fishing gear on deck and managed to reel in his second Mahimahi Tuna for the trip. For our Galley team, it was right back to work where they prepared our next meal, which was PHILLY CHEESSTEAKS! You can understand the scenes as it was most of our first time seeing steak since we all came from our respective hometowns. For those who werent already awake smelling the steak being prepared, I coerced them out of bed for dinner. We ate our cheesesteaks on deck with a beautiful sunset and were joined by a pod of dolphins to top it off. Cleanup after dinner went much smoother than it did earlier in the afternoon as some of us got ready to tuck in for the night in preparation for an early watch or if youre on watch team 2 (Talia, Lillian, Caterina, Grace C, Dan, Mac, Boston, and I), we went straight into watch. We expect to be in Essaouira sometime early in the coming morning, and Im sure you will hear from most of us as we regain service to our phones. Holly, Jeff, and Dan want me to tell you that he did, in fact, smile today (which he always does), but that was his request. That is all for now, we miss you, signing off.