Location: Underway to Fiji
Today started off as an early one as watch team 2 took over the deck from watch team 1 at 4 am. During these early watches, most people arrive feeling pretty sleepy. Watch team 2 decided that during this long passage, we would use these slightly sleepier hours as book club hours. We are currently listening to Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It is so interesting hearing about evolution and the different revolutions discussed in the book – it also keeps us awake, which is great! As the watch goes on and the sky begins to get lighter, our energy builds, and we always seem to have the best conversations and a lot of laughs during the third hour of watch which we have named ‘power hour’ or as Riley likes to call it ‘Pringle hour’ because we save our watch snacks for the third hour because it feels like the longest one.
After lunch, the students took their second Marine Biology exam, followed by a Seamanship class where we covered how to plot Running Fixes, the last navigation topic. From now on, all the seamanship classes will be dedicated to practicing all the different navigation techniques in preparation for sitting the IYT Navigation Master exam soon. We have also begun the seamanship oral exams, which consist of the students answering a few questions relating to various things up on deck, for example, how to raise and strike a sail, how to prep the anchor for dropping, and when and why we set up preventers and running backstays.
Izzy and her sous chefs Felipe and Mac, along with a couple of other helpers, cooked up a storm in the galley for dinner, creating 3 different versions of lasagna to meet all of our dietary requirements. She put so much care and effort into it and was a little nervous about it, but it was a hit with everyone. She even went through the extra effort of baking cookies for dessert. The squeeze question of the day was, “if the person sitting to your right had a Disney Princess style sidekick, what would it be?” and we had answers ranging from flying dragons in the style of Avatar and dolphins, which allow you to breathe underwater with them, to geckos with googly eyes and puppy dogs.
Looking back on the day, we had the realization that we are currently halfway to French Polynesia, and we have covered over 4400 nautical miles during the trip so far! We have also had some of the best sailing weather the past week and have been able to sail over 7 knots consistently without the engine and have reached a max speed of 11.1 knots when Argo surfed down some waves, so we are all hoping this weather will last for as long as possible!!
– Elle
ps happy birthday, dad!!!!! I love you soososoososososososooooo much!!! – Elie G 🙂
Current position: 0659.72’S x 11412.44’W
Pictured:
1. Sam and Elie during Nav Master class
2. Sam doing the engine room part of the boat check
3. Watch team 2 on deck