Location: Underway to Villefranche
Welcome to the last blog entry at sea! Early tomorrow morning, we will be docking for the last time on our voyage, and we will spend the following days exploring Monaco and the south of France. Everyone felt a combination of nostalgia and excitement all day as we enjoyed our last sunrise watches and saltwater showers. After getting very little sleep last night because of surprisingly rocky waves, Watch Team 3 started off the day early at 4 AM by raising the staysails to give the boat more stability. Later on, in the morning, Watch Team 1 spotted a turtle off the side of the boat, which added to the long list of sea creatures we’ve seen on this trip. Everyone woke up for lunch, looking pretty groggy, but the mood quickly shifted when lunch arrived fresh and on time. We ate a delicious pasta salad that was prepared by our head chef Devon and her helpers, Nazz and Robert.
The afternoon involved a pretty extensive class in navigation that proved to be a very useful review for our upcoming exam. The pieces are finally starting to come together for everyone, and the test is starting to seem a little less daunting. One highlight of the class was when Allison got a splinter, and everyone watched with bated breath as Dan stopped the class and came to the rescue with a pair of tweezers. Allison is now AOK. After class, we had our last saltwater showers on deck (an activity I think most of us will not miss) and spent the rest of the afternoon listening to music and catching some sun. Right on time again, Devon finished preparing a wonderful dinner of chicken and orzo. After dinner, many people talked about how much they will miss the simple, stress-free days like today, but we are all also looking forward to bringing everything we’ve learned on this voyage back home with us.
We are now anxiously awaiting one last spectacular sunset at sea before heading to bed only to wake up tomorrow morning in Villefranche!
-Alex
P.S. I send all my love to the best mother in the world! I hope you had an amazing birthday today. I love you very much, and I hope you haven’t been too bored without me for the past five weeks 🙂 Can’t wait to talk tomorrow.