Location: Underway to Richard’s Bay
My day started out at 11:30 pm when Maia and Adda woke me up for my 12-4 am watch. After my poor 30 minutes of sleep due to an intense chess match with Zeke and a few games of poker with Fin, Maia, Scarlette, and Wylie the night before, I stumbled my way to the salon and geared up for the chilly night that was ahead of us. The cold and rain are no strangers to watch team 2; however, it was indeed a chilly one that tested even the strongest of us. We stayed warm and passed the time by playing Just Dance in the cockpit. Jewel acts as a TV screen, singing the songs and showing Alice what dance moves to make, and finally acts as the sound effects, reading off the scores with short lines of “perfect” and “100%”. At last, it was time for the final boat check. After losing a game of rock, paper, scissors with Fin, I made my way around the deck, ensuring everything was sound, then made my way down to inspect the bilges and the engine room. Wake-ups were right around the corner at this point. Destiny, Hannah, Rai-Ching, Vera, and Zeke were all disappointed to hear the weather report, but nonetheless were all at midships at 3:49 sharp. After being relieved by watch team 3, I retired to my cabin where my warm bunk awaited my return.
After a short but solid 5 hours of sleep, I was greeted in the galley where Sam Mac and Fin were starting their chef day. Buffalo chicken wraps with coleslaw and watermelon for lunch and enchiladas for dinner. Yummy!! Before I could get my breakfast ramen, Perry asked me if I wanted to watch Guardians of the Galaxy with him and Zeke on the salon TVs. I, of course, agreed and settled down with my warm bowl of delicious breakfast, Ramon. Vera popped into the salon just in time to join us as the movie was just getting good. The movie ended at 11:45, witch worked out perfect for I had the 12-2 watch.
I rushed up just in time for Zoe and Kyler’s briefing. Watch went by quick as we ate lunch then immediately went down for marine biology. After marine biology, we split into two groups for seamanship. The first group took a mock test today, ensuring we are all ready for the real deal, and group 2 had free time until dinner and will have the mock test next class. As dinner rolled around, I went through the boat telling everyone to muster in the cockpit for the count off. When I went to the port three stack, I was greeted by Thaxton, who was stuffing his pocket with a Sprite, and Keith was watching a movie. After counting off, we all had a wonderful meal together, ending it off with the squeeze question of the night, “What is your favorite just dance song?” I caught Payton off guard by having her answer the squeeze question first. To which she answered, “I’ve played just dance once and don’t remember a single song.” To end, the squeeze was a simple squeeze, clap, and clean up was started. I took the helm just in time for the rain shower to start. After 15 minutes on the helm, I was ready to see Riley and Emma come to my rescue, allowing me to make my way down to the salon to write the blog. I was pleasantly surprised to find Zeke and Finn whipping up a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies in the galley, listening to some lovely music. To end my night, I will go back up on watch until 12 am, then make my bed and get a good night’s sleep. Lastly I wanted to say hi to all my family and friends at home I hope you are all doing great and I miss all of you, and destiny has a special message for her mom “Happy birthday mom! I love and miss you so much – Destiny”