Location: Underway to Gili Islands
After a great breakfast, the open-water students (helmed by Jake) valiantly finished off their introductory diving videos while the more advanced divers prepared Vela for our passage to the Gili Islands. We then went over the station bill to be more prepared during an emergency and got a rundown of the procedure for boat checks. Of course, the most important part of safety while underway is our PFDs. Our introduction to these also included a demonstration to get us acquainted with our emergency immersion suits. This demonstration came with a race between Wes (one of our smallest and most agile students) and Jake to throw on one of the impossibly unwieldy immersion suits while serenaded by shouts from 23 other voices crammed into the salon (there was also a modeling of one of the suits by Griffin, who at 6’8″ fit it quite snugly). Just before dinner, we left Bali and prepared for our first passage. Raising the main staysail as the light faded and we motored into the (mostly) open water was a truly magical moment that will, I’m sure, herald a wonderful journey. While I can’t speak for the rest of the watches, watch one also had a wonderful and exhausting 4 hours in the cockpit led by Steph under the stars while also ensuring that Captain Tom got as little sleep as possible. Here’s to another amazing 88 days.