Location: The Atlantic Ocean
Hey, y’alllll, Just another good ol’ day of passage here on Vela. I came up on deck about 11:45 pm last night to watch and found the moon looking absolutely beautiful, casting shimmering light onto the ocean. It was probably the brightest I’ve ever seen! My watch team (Shelby, Johnathan, Michelle, Anda, and Garrett ily guys <33) Put up the main sail and jib around midnight, which was soooooo cool because we did it very fast and efficiently. I’ve never had to put up sails that late at night before, and I felt like a real sailor with the floodlights on and all. After putting the sails up, the wind died, and we sailed one nautical mile in 1 hour (wow, that’s really fast!) It was very peaceful, though, and we had a “whisper watch”… we had to whisper, or else the entire boat could hear us. If I woke anyone up because I’m naturally really loud, I’m sorryyy.. (especially when I talk about House of the Dragon with Shelby.. Seriously, if any of y’all are reading this and watching it too, you know this season is crazy). Then we floated for a couple of hours and put down the main sail… Putting up AND taking down a sail in the same watch!? Crazy talk. It was super duper exciting, though, so shout out watch team 2 once again.
Today, we had sandwiches for lunch! There was a make-your-own sandwich bar filled with all kinds of meats, cheeses, condiments, and toppings. I personally chose a provolone, turkey, mayonnaise, lettuce, and Doritos sandwich. Y’all gotta have chips on your sandwich, and if you don’t.. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Then, after lunch, we had our VHF class with Coach Bale (Andy makes us call him that when he’s in teacher mode.. idk why). We learned all about how to use the VHFs, the phonetic alphabet, how to use a VHF in different scenarios, etc.. all to prepare for our exam tomorrow so we can get certified to use them! YAY!
I heard that there were some sightings of whales, but unfortunately, I was not on deck for any of them 🙁 But they were flopping out of the water, breaching, and doing their whale thang. For dinner, we had some delicious Spanish rice (shout out, Dan, for head cheffing it UP today, dude; you redeemed yourself 20 days later), and Nora made some delicious banana bread for dessert! I magically had a banana bread recipe saved on my phone and shared it with her, so we ate gooooood tonight! Then for squeeze I asked everyone what kind of animal they would ride if they were stuck in a video game like Jumanji.. Needless to say, I got some funny answers, which I was fully expecting. Today was a great day 🙂 As we get closer to Gibraltar, everyone is getting more excited but also sad as the 50-day peeps are going to have to go home soon, including me 🙁 This is my last blog I’ll be writing, I’m truly going to miss everyone and Vela with my entire heart. I don’t want to speak too soon because it’s not over yet, but this summer has been life-changing, and I’m so glad to have experienced this journey with everyone. From finally getting to see a shark in the Azores to unexpected type 2 fun on days of passage, I am sooooo happy that I took a chance this summer and decided to cross the Atlantic with 19 strangers.. Y’all are so sick!!!!