Location: Nuku Hiva, Marquesas
Today was magical.
Our passage and our watch cycles are coming to an end, and land is no longer a distant memory or a speck in the distance. Our ETA is under twelve hours. Watch Team 2 (you know, the watch team that carried the crew) had our last 4-8, watching the sun rise as a group for the last time. It was crazy, the way that the sun and a waning gibbous moon were both prominent in the sky. We were never in darkness because of their overlapping and shared light. Pale moonlight met soft blues and pinks and purples met a rainbow of sunrise, and finally that golden orb itself. Its like the sky itself understood that today was magical for us.
Funny how our last day of passage aligned with our last marine bio lecture. Of course, there is more marine bio to come, and more passage to come, but there is still poetry, I believe, in the fact that our longest passage and our fun marine bio lectures finished together.
The rest of the afternoon went by in a blur. After seamanship, we were all scurrying on deck, dropping every sail, and getting ready to drop anchor. Land is now so close we can see the minute details, the different shades of green, the erosion, and the waterfalls. We all stopped in awe of this sight before us. Our first visit to land in 18 days, and this was how magnificent it was. Welcome to French freakin Polynesia.
Once the calamity calmed, all the jobs done, we set the ladder out as fast as we could, and we jumped in and SWAM. That nice salty water was the greatest heaven after so many days on the sea, unable to be in the sea. One by one, we jumped into that water, cannonballs, pencil dives, and backflips. We took our first ocean showers since San Blas/Guna Yala. We were all cheering and hollering, incredibly glad that we are here.
It was incredibly comical to hear someone say, Watch team two go eat first, even though were not on passage anymore. And even though there was an instant protest from watch team one and three, everyone still waited for us to go first. So obviously they saw reason for why watch team 2, who would technically have still been on watch at that time, got to eat first. And we got to do our first upper deck in over two weeks!!
Overall, spirits were high during dinner and squeeze. Yes, we love the sea, but a healthy dose of land was well needed. We still need to get cleared in, but we know that we will set foot on land very soon.
On that note, its time for us to sign off, to take time to talk to our families, stargaze, hang out, and get some sleep before anchor watch.
All in all, today was a great day, with high spirits and a high sense of community.
Best wishes (there are many benefits to being a marine biologist),
SkylAr
PS – we love you, Denise!
PPS – we are experiencing our first time zone that is off by half an hour. Feeling funky.