Location: 9ᴼ55.36 S 135ᴼ31.78 W
It was a dark and stormy night. . . oh wait, no it wasn’t! It was a beautiful star-filled night at 4 am, and watch team 2 struggled not to fall asleep. Someone lazily wished for an audiobook to listen to to help pass the time. Ash suddenly looked around and said, “Wait, I think I have some good books downloaded, just a minute.” As it turns out, he did have some good audiobooks, and we spent a very peaceful morning listening to The Martian. Indignation was so high that he waited to share until almost the last day of passage. I mean, really! We could have finished that book by now. As the sun rose, it was time to execute our first jibe since leaving the Galapagos and turn towards Nuku Hiva for the last short leg of passage. The amount of true sailing we have been able to do has been amazing, and the engine has not been on in quite some time. We went through an efficient jibe with the full main up (not reefed) and the staysails, but the flying jib came down momentarily. After our new course was set, everyone was able to pass a relaxing morning, either catching up on sleep, writing their essay about shark provisioning for a marine bio that is due tomorrow, or just reading a book. For lunch, Anton treated us to his world-famous lentil soup with garlic bread. Right after cleanup, we went straight into our oceanography presentations for those who did not go yesterday. I think everybody did very well, and their topics were interesting.
I definately did NOT fall asleep for most of them from the heat! Leadership class after that with some good discussion about understanding ourselves led by Molly. Then, I am not sure what everybody did between class and dinner, as I was deeply occupied with untangling 200 ft of fishing line that had twisted together during the jibe in the morning and gotten worse ever since. Thanks to Makenna, Felipe, and Jack for helping with that knot. Many were the voices that claimed it couldn’t be done and to just cut the line, but we did it. Stovetop lasagna for diner as well as part of the skipjack tuna that was caught a few days ago. There is another great sunset to end the day and lots of laughter during the cleanup, which is right now. I almost wish we could just keep sailing, it is sad to know that this voyage is coming to a close. As this will be my last day as skipper, goodnight, goodby, and so much love to those at home. Penelope