Location: Edible Island
Hey, Hi, and How are ya from the other side of the world:)
It’s the skipper of the day Bee C. at your service to fill you in on our past 24 hours on Vela and our first almost week together through my eyes, so buckle up, I got a whole lot to fill you in. On! Let’s start where my day started-4:30am in the gross, humid drizzle of early morning anchor watch. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that it is never fun being jolted awake in the middle of a great dream to go stand outside in the middle of the night and stress out a bit that monsoon is going to sneak out of nowhere on your watch. At first, I hated the idea of not being able to sleep the night through, but by day four, I realized how much I was actually enjoying this experience. We live in such close quarters that alone time or space for slow, quiet, thoughtful moments really doesn’t exist except for on-night watch. We all have another student to keep us awake and in check, but other than that, it just feels like you and the stars above our heads. Sam, my dear friend from high school whom I unexpectedly found in the Facebook group a week or so prior to our departure, is one of my watch partners. In our time keeping an eye on Vela this morning, he told me the story of the constellation Orion and of his love for greek mythology. It was not only a great way to start my day, but I realized that I would have never known this about him without this time, and now I have a newfound appreciation for that constellation. After our watch was over and the sun was up, we made our way to the nets around the bowsprit, read our books a bit, and enjoyed a laugh about the sea snake that circled the boat the other night ( also, how cool are SEA SNAKES -the marine life here is truly incredible).
We are currently incredibly close to what I, along with a few others, have dubbed “Edible Island” because it looks good enough to eat ( some say fruit snack-I say sugar cookie), and the smell of the palm trees just barely makes it to the boat. There are great shallow sand bars that are perfect for those of us who are still getting scuba certified, and the wreckage of mangled old buildings from the abandoned resort gives us something more interesting to look at than the endless ocean views we are preparing to sea (see what I did there hehe). When not hanging out with Meyer’s Butterflyfish and Sea Slugs, we have been learning important kiwi slang, knots, and boat functions in Seamanship from Tom. I am so excited to learn about how to sail a ship this large most efficiently, and hopefully a thing or two about celestial navigation. We also today had our first dive into Oceanography and Marine Bio. I can not think of anything cooler than learning about and seeing firsthand the fish and other creatures that are living under our feet and the incredible world they live in. To be honest, I never really pictured myself as a sailor or much of a marine scientist before this voyage, but at day six, I can say that perspective has surprisingly and pleasantly started to change. When done with the bulk of our day, it’s time to huck a cheeky backie off the bow and try to get all the salt out of our hair during shower time; this is, I think my favorite part of the day because it is usually when the sun starts to set, everyone is coming off the sunburned high of an amazing day, and we all rally behind someone who is a little nervous about the idea of a backflip, myself included. It’s a great time for us to enjoy the beauty of where we are and the amazing people we are herewith. It’s usually around this time we also hear our stomachs start rumbling, haha. For dinner, we had Ratatouille and roast potatoes. It was delicious, and I brought it home with a squeeze question of “if you could be in any move, what would you be in and why”? Ending the squeeze with our best “Alright Alright Alright” Mathew McConaughey impressions. All the answers were pretty great and gave us more of an understanding of each other, I think. Next was clean-up powered by some great tunes and our final PADI video. It is now time for watch and time for me to go to bed and have another amazing day tomorrow.
Mom + Dad + Anne, if you’re reading this, hi:) I’m fine and happy and well. I can’t wait to see you and fill you in on all of the cool stuff I’m doing- I miss you all so much<3
To everyone else, I hope you enjoyed it.
Talk soon!
Bee
Photo’s Day 6
1. Openwater divers doing their confined open water and Vela in the background.
2. “Edible island” with the open water students doing skills.
3. Today’s sunset from the bowsprit.
5. Seth and Bee on the bowsprit.
6. Jon teaching Zack how to service the hydraulic anchor system.