Location: Horta
The morning started out wet. We had accidentally left open the hatches to our cabin, the Fo’c’sle, and we awoke to a puddle on our floor, as well as the edges of the bottom bunks. Not the best way to start a day, but hey, when you live on a boat, you should probably expect to get a little wet. After mopping up the puddle, we headed to the salon for breakfast. It was kind of a big deal. This was our first official and fully cooked meal that we had to eat inside because of rain, which, considering we’re on day 35, is pretty good. Following our hearty breakfast of toast and shakshuka, humbly made by our trusty captain Tom (he’s an incredible chef), head chef for the day, we anxiously awaited instruction.
Today was to be our leadership challenge, a scavenger hunt/obstacle course around Horta, which, together with a reflection, makes up about a quarter of our grade in leadership class. Tom split us up into three teams and sent a map to one member of each team to guide us to each stop on the course. With that, team 1 was off, as the race had a staggered start. I was a part of team 2, made up of myself, Max, Annie, Sarah, Gigi, and Mal. While waiting for team 1 to complete the first task, we decided on a team name of “The Dawgs.” Finally, we got the all-clear to head up on deck and start the course.
Stop one was the bow, where we had to raise and drop the forward staysail, coiling the lines nicely in between. Our raise, led by resident sailing expert Mal, wasn’t the smoothest, but we made up time when Mal fixed all of our dirty coils in about 30 seconds and when Annie beautifully flaked the sail perfectly as we dropped it, saving time. Once again, Mal fixed our coils since Calum was nitpicking, and we were off to stop two, pending a quick dance break for a video Gigi was making of us on the course.
We hiked out of the port and around the nearby hill, walking on a grass-lined path along the raised cliffs adjacent to the nearby beach. The rain had stopped, but the grass was still wet, and we left our shoes on the dock overnight, which left them soaked this morning, so with each step, there would be a slight squelch as the water was expelled from your shoe below the pressure of your foot. Despite this, it was a pleasant hike, without too much incline and beautiful views of the beach, the open ocean, and the town of Horta, slowly coming alive as the rain let up and the morning sun started to peek through the clouds. Shortly after passing team 1 on the path, we reached Carolyn at stop number two. Stop two was a riddle with a twist. Get it wrong and add 10 minutes or forgo the riddle for only a 5-minute penalty. The Dawgs voted in favor of the 5-minute penalty rather than risking it (when we heard the riddle at the end, Max solved it in less than 20 seconds, so hindsight once again is 20/20). We did our quick little dance on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and were on our way again, hopeful that we could catch team 1 at stop 3.
We hiked back down the way we came, occasionally skipping and hopping, because why not? Once at the bottom, we found Heather on the beach, carefully watching team 1 attempt to complete stop number three. Challenge three was a maze, but once again, with a twist. Only one team member needed to complete the maze, but they had to be blindfolded and could not go outside the boundaries, drawn in the dark volcanic sand. Gigi was our maze runner, if you will, with the rest of our team offering directions as Gigi slowly walked along the path. Max took the lead as the main director, but each team member pitched in with information about the course coming up and talked to Gigi from the edges to make a sound wall indicating the edge. It worked well, and we made it through the maze with no penalties. We took the standard dancing video and sped off up the hill between the beach and our boat.
Getting to Dylan at stop number four was a bit more difficult. Instead of hiking around a hill like we did for stop number 2, we had to hike up this one. Luckily there were steps up the path the whole way. Unluckily, the steps were pretty steep, and by the time we reached the top, all of our quads were burning. But we made it and had fun doing it, singing along to a few songs as we went. Once at Dylan, we were given the instructions for the fourth challenge. This one was called the magic carpet, and we had a rubber mat that we all had to stand on and flip upside down without touching the dead leaves that covered the clearing at the top of the hill among the trees. While other teams, we later found out, placed jackets down to avoid stepping on the leaves, we found a different loophole: Dylan only stated that we couldn’t touch the leaves but didn’t specify the ground. We quickly brushed away all the leaves, stepped off, flipped it over, and hopped back on. After brushing the leaves back and once again taking a dancing video, we headed off down the hill on the other side, which would bring us out closer to the boat, which was the final stop. As we reached the entrance to the dock, we ran to the boat, listening and singing along to “Who Let the Dogs Out?” barking as we stepped onto Vela and found Tom in the galley to stop our time at just 1 hour and 49 minutes.
Once team 3 returned, we had a wonderful lunch of freshly made salad with homemade dressing, both of which were divine. Having salad was such a nice treat as well because, as you might assume, it is hard to keep fresh vegetables good for a long while you cross the ocean. As lunch finished up, Tom informed us about the official times for the course. Team 1 had taken the scenic route on their hikes (they insist it was on purpose) and finished in a little under two and a half hours. Meanwhile, both teams 2 and 3 finished at exactly the same time, resulting in a tie. Nobody likes a draw, so Tom devised a tiebreaker, which was a riddle: The one who makes it does not keep it, the one who buys it has no use for it, and the one who uses it can neither see nor feel it (answer at bottom). We only had one shot at it, but we, unfortunately, got it wrong, leaving team 3 25 minutes to solve it, which they needed nearly every second of it. They were able to solve it and were named the official winners of the challenge course.
Following the riddle-off, a number of our crew went to the salon to take their Navmaster exam, giving the rest of us free time. Some of us went to cafes while the rest of us stayed on board and napped after a long morning of running around. I elected for a nap and was awoken for dinner sometime later, which was a heavenly stew. Following dinner, we again had free time, during which of us had a quick gym session on deck. Following this, we were ready for a treat and headed out on the town for some gelato, which has become a daily occurrence, and even sometimes twice daily. As we sat in the park across the cobblestone street, overlooking the marina, we had a heated debate on how to define food types. I am of the belief that the cube rule is the proper way to classify food (look it up, there’s apparently a whole website devoted to it), which defines food by how many sides of carbohydrate encloses it.
As we walked back, the sun was beginning to set, lighting up the edges of the clouds in bright orange as it does every night in the Azores. Yet another beautiful end to another perfect day on this voyage and I couldn’t help but smile. This has been such an amazing experience, with each day better than the last, and I couldn’t help but feel grateful for this opportunity, for my fellow crew members, who are now my good friends, and for the beautiful boat that we get to call home, and for the tasty gelato, I had in my hand.
With lots of gratitude,
-Brian C.
Riddle Answer: A coffin