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Location: Falmouth, Antigua

We began the day at our anchorage near Five Islands, Antigua. We immediately started our day by preparing Argo for passage to Falmouth, which was supposed to be a quick motor down the coast. However, not too long into our voyage, we were hit with some strong winds, and Calum faked an engine failure to get everyone on deck to raise the sails, as Tomer, the captain-in-training for the next semester, helmed. I happened to have decided today to be a pajama day, which turned out to be a mistake when it began raining and waves began spraying over the deck. At the bow, we alternated between which side the sheet had tension on as we tacked every few minutes, which involved a lot of dashing back and forth to pull and ease lines. Most people went back down below, but I remained up on deck to enjoy the sailing, with first Taylor, Caroline, and Del. Caroline, Del, and I got the chance to go out onto the bowsprit net, where we lay down a bit enjoying the warm sea spray, and then flaked the jib back down. Chefs Rob, Joe, and Skylar sent grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches, which were fantastic.

Eventually, we pulled into Falmouth Bay, where I dropped the anchor. We did a thorough wash of the deck and scrubbed the floors down below. Chelsea, Daisy, and I put the jib cover on and created a little tent for a while with it. The group going for their rescue certification spent the afternoon doing drills and scenarios to help injured, panicking, or unresponsive divers. I went for a dive led by Miles, along with Del, Daisy, and Stich. Stich let me use her hammerhead shark diving hood, and we had a lot of fun underwater, doing running flips against each other on the bottom and playing with a bottle I found.

Overall, I had a fantastic passage, and I’m really grateful that we got some fun sailing for our last trip. It feels crazy that we’re only three days from the end of the program, but we’re making the most of it until the very end. It’s truly been an unforgettable trip, and I know already that I’m going to miss sailing, diving, exploring port cities, ocean showering, hikes, and canyoning, and everyone on board.

For the last time, Erik signing off 🙂