Location: Moyo Island, Indoensia
Hiiii, welcome to my first ever blog post! I remember reading posts from past trips before coming aboard Argo, and I can’t believe I am finally here writing one myself. It has finally sunk in that this is actually real and not some amazing dream. Last night, we got our phones back, and a lot of us got to call our families. With our phones finally back, we also have access to music again, which has been great. Last night, Ava, Bodhi, and I looked through my playlists to find the perfect song to wake everyone up to in the morning. I was excited to play “Upside Down” by Jack Johnson for everyone, but when the wake up time of 6:30 am came around, everyone was already awake, so I didn’t get to play my song 🙁 Instead, we just connected to the big speaker and had a little dance party in the galley before breakfast. After breakfast, we took the dinghy out to the island of Moyo Moyo. It’s a super remote and small island, with essentially nothing on it besides people’s houses. It was our first time on land since the program started, and it was super crazy because while standing on solid ground, I could still feel the rocking of the boat. My first few steps felt pretty wobbly, and we all were laughing, trying to walk straight. We walked through one of the streets, where all the locals waved and smiled at us as we passed by. Then, we began our 2-mile hike to the waterfall. The road was a narrow, rocky path that was quite steep, so I was pretty shocked to see mopeds zooming up and down. Once we got to the waterfall, we all jumped in for a swim and climbed the rocks, which allowed us to stand underneath/behind the waterfall. Kiley, Drazka, Allie, Ava, and I created a synchronized swim to perform for everyone else, although they didn’t seem as impressed as we hoped they’d be. After our 7/10 performance, according to Bodhi, we hiked back down to Argo, stopping for popsicles along the way.
Once aboard again, we had to pull up anchor to begin our passage to Komodo. I had to flank the anchor and struggled a bit on the first attempt. We got it on the 2nd attempt, but as the anchor began to surface, we realized an entire piece of coral was stuck on it. Ben and Will had to perform a rescue mission to get the coral off and get us on our way. Once moving again, we had seamanship class, where we learned about different points of sail, and oceanography class, where we learned about tectonic plates. Ava and I learned we are better at paying attention when standing up, and we had a competition to see who could stand still the longest while the boat was rocking. Finally free from the heat of the saloon, we had some free time before dinner.
Some people took naps, some worked on their logbooks, and although I tried to be productive and work on my logbook as well, hanging out on the bow net wthat’sling to me, so that’s what I did before dinner. Amanda, Bohdi, Ava, and I hung out on the bow, laughing at the waves and admiring the islands in the distance. We were then presently surprised by Meg summoning us to let us know that dinner wGabe’sly. We enjoyed Gabe’s cheffing, especially the mmmmmmmmmpao tofu. Dinner is my favorite meal on Argo because we all gather, talk about our days, and answer the squeeze question. The sun sets above us. I loved seeing whatever color would take the sky that night, and there have been some pretty fantastic sunsets it’sar. Although it’s just been a week, I feel like we are all so close and are becoming a little family. Every moment is one to be cherished, and I am so grateful for this opportunity. See you guys in a bit for mI’mext blog post. I’m off to shower before my 8-12 night shift.
I ya you, Mom and Dad!
-Hannah