Location: Underway to the Caribbean
The day of excitement on Argo started bright and early at 3:30 when Hailey was abruptly hit by a flying fish while at the helm. Fish blood and guts went everywhere, but luckily, all here is okay (well, probably not the fish). This was followed by a bird being found inside the chart house. The bird was okay and flew away unharmed. Today was Bryson’s birthday! The swells today were pretty rough, which caused a ‘crazy time’ in the galley while Alexa, Emily, and Bryson prepared his birthday treat of scrambled pancakes. After lunch, we had an oceanography lecture where we learned about energy transfer in the oceans, followed by a leadership presentation led by Maria and Sabrina. The afternoon was filled with naps and tomfoolery. At dinner, we ate the pancake bits that people had prepared for Bryson. Although wavy, today was a good day, and I can’t wait for us to arrive in the Caribbean finally.
Happy Birthday, Bryson, and happy birthday, Mom!
Heyyy, it’s Teagan!!!! I have the pleasure of being on Ben’s watch team, which means I have gotten to see all of the flying fish that he has saved throughout the passage so far. I am not joking when I say that Ben is a flying fish magnet. They must just be drawn to him because over the past 8 days, he has held 18, yes 18, flying fish in his hands. The first encounter came on a 12-4 watch when Ben was enjoying a conversation with Meg on the low side. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a flying fish smacked him in the neck! Ben managed to save this one, but this was just the start of his career as the professional flying fish whisperer on Argo. The next night watch, Ben was sitting on the low side again, this time with Jem, when another flying fish launched itself on board. Ben grabbed it quickly and threw it overboard, but not before it flopped around in the cockpit a little.
We believed that the excitement was over for the night, but boy, were we very wrong. On his way to wash his hands because the flying fish are lowkey kind of gross, he stumbled upon three more dead fish on deck! Ben came back to the cockpit with the biggest grin I’ve ever seen, flying fish speed out in his hand like money. After all this, we passed some time playing Mafia (we managed to spend two and a half hours playing Mafia, don’t ask me how), which was extremely entertaining, especially when Aidan was the mafia and managed to fool everyone into believing it was me. We then sent Ben on another “fish walk” around the deck, where he managed to find two more fish! His tally for the night was now at 6! This was when things got crazy again. Towards the very end of this watch, a flying fish went flying down a hatch and into the salon. It was still alive, and Ben rushed over with lightning speed (never have I seen this man run faster except to get his Pringles) and saved it from certain death in the galley. His total that night ended at 7, but that was nowhere close to the end of his flying fish-saving career. Watch team 2 has now placed bets on how many fish he is going to come in contact with over the entire passage (personally, I think 51, but Aidan went as high as 57).