Location: Underway to Brazil
Today was one of our last few days of passage as we made our way to Brazil. We are all getting excited to reach our destination so we can have some shore time to stretch our legs and explore after another 2-week long passage. Despite what one may think, the passage is not always filled with sail wrangling and helming through squalls. Today was rather mundane but started off with one of the most impressive sunrises of passage so far. Passage life, in general, is more mundane than most would think, and the days really do blend together. Most of the time, it’s hard to remember what you did yesterday because the days are practically all the same despite subtle differences in conversation or watch times. While some slept and others were on watch, our chefs started work on lunch to get the whole crew fed and ready for the two classes we had today. We had Halumi for lunch, which some people had never had before, but everyone really enjoyed it. We had Oceanography and Seamanship classes today, which always cover good information that is very pertinent to our day-to-day life on the boat. After we completed classes, we all settled into our usual routines for the few free hours we had between classes and dinner. While some chefs head up to watch, others work on homework or decide to make it a social hour and spend time with friends on the boat. Some of our chefs have come up with inventive new ways to deal with the task of cutting onions on the boat. They were successful in their innovative endeavors. We were told to expect some rain, but we had a lovely day filled with some rather intense sunshine at some point, which some people took advantage of to catch some sun rays or to do a little last-minute laundry before we were all soggy for the next few weeks as we make our way up to the Caribbean. On some more exciting news, it is one of our crew members’ birthday tomorrow. Nini will be turning 19 tomorrow, and we have a little surprise party planned for her after her 8-12 watch tonight. We have had a lot of birthdays on this trip so far, and even more to come in the remaining two months of this trip. It is always a very special feeling to get to celebrate someone’s birthday on this trip, and we always try to make the most of it despite this being a lot of people’s first birthdays away from home. We are all doing well aboard and are feeling ready to hit the Caribbean and start kicking this adventure into high gear.