Location: Underway to Barbados
HEY BLOG READERS!!!!!!!! I hope your day was as good as ours. Boy, we have had a really, really great day of sailing. It all started this morning on my watch team’s 12-4 am watch, when we shared some fun stories, trimmed some sails, made great speed, and when Benny got attacked by a flying fish. Like literally, flying through the air, slapped him on the back like a 5-star. Luckily, the fish was okay and rightfully returned to the sea. There then proceeded to be three more fish that flew onto deck within the next five minutes. Watch team two then relieved us to raise the fisherman to sail the instant Calum woke up and gave the go-ahead. Apparently, they had a pretty epic sunrise as well. So all six of our sails were flying, cruising us at a smoking 7-9 knots, which is smoking fast for our argo. If you don’t believe me that is fast, you better, it is super duper fast. We are FLYING like that fish that hit Benny on the back. After watching team two’s watch, watch team three shake the reef out of the main sail, so ALL OF OUR canvas was up for the first time since the program started. It is super exciting to be sailing like this after motoring through the windless doldrums. I can say all of us are stoked the rumbling engine is off, and we are speeding way faster than we would even if the engine was in command. Anyway. After that, we had lunch, and Benny made us pancakes. Those were a hit, especially the Nutella that Shane licked fully clean, letting none go to waste. After that, we had a pretty fun day of classes. In leadership, we played fish bowl after journling. We were reunited with our original watch teams for this game of fish bowl. And if you don’t know what a fish bowl is, it is essentially a mixture of charades and taboo. ( Mom – it is the game in the bag, the one we play at Kristina’s house) The twist was that the cards we made were Argo-themed, inside joke-type things. It ended up coming down to a pretty entertaining tie-breaker between Zac and Cecily. This game rejuvenated us before we sat through another Marine biology lecture on a pretty interesting lecture on Cndairians and sea sponges, and just as everyone was getting up after class to go do their thing, Calum called us up on deck for an announcement.
To make up for the day we lost to the engine mishap in the doldrums, we will sadly be skipping our destination of Devil’s Island… BUT we hit 11 KNOTS of sailing!!! We were flying even more than we had been. And now we are B-lining it to the Caribbean!! We are going to go island hopping and get dive certified and swim and sing and dance! So, although there is no Devil’s Island, we will be in Barbados all the much sooner, and little to no morale was lost because of how excited we are to cross the feat of crossing the Atlantic ocean and making it to the Caribbean.
For dinner, we had tiki masala with chickpeas and naan. Yum yum yum. Benny and his sou chefs, Kiki and Sylver, really outdid themselves today. Almost everyone went back for seconds. My squeeze question of the day was, if you could trade a quality or trait of the person next to you, what would it be? I could agree with almost everyone’s answer. Everyone on this boat has some admirable qualities. Everyone then broke into their cleanup jobs, and the Fishman sail was taken down for the night. Watch team one is back on watch, and the boat peeps are slowly making their way to bed. All is well again on Argo, and life is goooooood. So, cheers! See ya next time.
To Mom- Hi! I love and miss you lots. I’m thinking about you every day, and sorry we didn’t get to call in Fernando when the power went out. 🙁 I am doing very well despite the sleep deprivation, but I am excited to see you again!
Dad- Hi, Dad! Love and miss you too! I hope you have well recovered from your illness and maybe had a belated birthday celebration.
Claudette- miss and love you and see you sooner than you know!
To my friends…. if you’re reading this, text me bananas waffle pancake. I highly doubt any of you have continued reading these blogs, but if you are, I really do miss the lot of you.