Location: Palau
Welp! That’s a wrap for Palau! It has been a fantastic last week in this beautiful nation, and it was hard for all of us to have to say “see you later” (not goodbye!!) this afternoon when we raised the sails and set off for Raja Ampat. This morning I woke everyone up to my party anthem, “Die Young” by Kesha, of course, and we had a super yummy breakfast of overnight oats, courtesy of head chef Sierra. Afterward, we gathered down in the salon for a Navmaster class with Drew! We learned how to plot our estimated position while accounting for the tide set and tide rate. Afterward, we got Vela all packed up and ready for passage before hopping in the dinghies and heading to shore one last time. Catching a taxi downtown, we explored coffee shops, grocery stores (making sure to load up on pop-tarts), and souvenir shops. All that walkin’ around really got us working up an appetite, so we stopped at an Indian restaurant where I devoured THE most insane chocolate ice cream of my entire life. We made our way back to the dive shop where we would be dinghied back to Vela and had one last ocean swim before we picked up anchor and raised the sails to begin our passage to Raja Ampat!
I’m super excited to see where this next adventure takes us- it blows my mind that everyone here in Palau tells us how lucky we are to dive in Raja Ampat when I seriously cannot even imagine anything better than the dives we went on during our time here. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we have fallen in love with this country and its beautiful culture. Whether it’s kayaking, diving, or cliff jumping with the locals, we learned something new every day about how the people here live. My favorite piece of Palau I’ll be taking home with me is a necklace with Palauan money representative of the matriarchal society they operate in. The piece of blue coral strung onto the necklace is traditionally passed on through generations of Palauan women and signifies their value within their community. On our way out, we waved goodbye to land (it’ll be a while before we see that again) and the beautiful tropical birds that were so abundant here. A massive fruit bat also joined the entourage seeing us out.
For tonight’s squeeze question, I asked everyone what they’ve learned about themselves so far on this voyage. It was really heartwarming to hear how much more confident people have gotten in themselves and how living and working together as a constant united front has unlocked different parts of people they didn’t even know were inside them all along. Isolation from technology and social media was also a major factor in removing outside influence and making room for us to explore more of our goofy sides and bond closer than I think we would have if phones and the internet were there as a crutch. Tonight, we resumed our watch schedule with new teams, and I can’t wait for the next few days of passage as we all begin to get our sea legs back.
Mom, Dad, Matt, Grandparents, and all of my friends- thank you for always believing in me. I miss and love you guys!
-Skipper Sydney