Location: The Mediterranean Sea
Todays wake up in a word: wet. No, it wasnt raining, and the boat wasnt taking on water. I stuck my head out of my middle bunk and looked up to greet my sleepy, top bunkmate, who wished me good morning and dribbled in my face. They would like it stating, for the record, that theyd just taken a huge gulp of water. We started the staff watch-takeover boat check, with one of us crawling into the engine room and the other checking bilges, propane, hatches, etc, below deck. When entering the hourly log book information we found our trip log was at exactly 4000 nautical miles! Weve come a long way since the start of June. We headed up on deck to greet Watch Team 1 and see who looked the most sheepish (Will) and, therefore, the most likely to have woken us up by knocking the throttle and sending the boat into overdrive. Its always nice to catch up with the other watch teams and find out how their watches went. For Watch Team 2 (Dan, Michelle, Lucie, Garrett and Johnathon) we had a gorgeous evening watch last night. The lack of wind (bo) resulted in flat, calm conditions, and it was mesmerizing to watch Vela glide over the water, leaving silky, unbroken ripples in her wake. As the sun descended, it became a deep red ball casting an iridescent sheen of subtle colors across the surface, unlike anything weve ever seen. To top it off, we continued to be visited by dolphins whose graceful, playful shapes were the only disturbance in the water and sky that blurred together into an indistinguishable horizon. The other watch teams reckon they have us beaten, though. We heard descriptions of spectacular bioluminescence even brighter than usual with the Milky Way overhead. We often wonder what is swimming below us in the vastness of the ocean or past us under cover of the darkest night that we can never know about. Last night was a rare event in that some ocean visitors were sighted in the early hours of the morning, and Joey and Nora gave me vivid accounts of seeing the bioluminescent outlines of dolphins streaking through the water and bow-riding with us.
We continue to follow the southern coastline of Spain on our way to Tarragona. This keeps the watch teams on their toes as there is far more boat traffic in the area, and we must pay close attention to our course. Johnathon, Andy, and Nate served up barbeque chicken for lunch, and the afternoon was filled with more oceanography classes. In an impromptu interview, Zoe summarized the class as scintillating. In a similar off-the-cuff interview, Garrett summarized his evening watch as dolphintastic. Time seems to be moving extra quickly now, made even more poignant with the departure of some dearly missed friends in Gibraltar. Though we still have a lot planned, it is clear everyone is trying to soak up as much as possible from the last three weeks of this experience. To Mum, Andy, and Kelly Im looking forward to seeing you all in Italy to catch up, be tourists, and eat all the pizza and gelato! To Mrs. Jill Granat I made sure to get TWO photos of Garrett into this blog!