Location: Banda Sea
Hello! What a great day onboard Vela on our passage from Raja Ampat to Komodo! Today we enjoyed calm seas, a gentle breeze, and lots of sun with all of our sails up for the first time. Today, the 80-day students finished our final lecture for marine bio, and the 40-day students had a seamanship class to get familiar with Velas sails and rigging. Lawrence, Luna, and Steph cooked us two wonderful meals fueled by Latin dance parties in the galley, followed by a conga line around the boat to finish squeeze after dinner. On our 1400-1800 watch, Watch Team 2 enjoyed great sailing, a marlin sighting, and many flying fish encounters. We also had an impromptu rotten fruit and vegetable compost disposal at sunset to get rid of some spoiled provisions, which featured Mac trying to huck a rotten watermelon between the main boom topping lift and the mainsail, subsequently missing, and getting watermelon all over the main. It was quite a sight. The sunset was one of our best (and, quite possibly, one of the best sunsets ever to exist in the history of sunsets), made even better by the sight of the full sail area and the empowering feeling of sailing across the seas.
Were looking forward to arriving in Komodo in a few days and the adventures to come, but even more so to enjoying the best moments of our last big passage onboard Vela. Stay tuned for more updates on our oceanic adventures through Indonesia. Skipper out.
Shoutout to my Mom (big fan of the blog), love ya, Mom.