Location: Falmouth Harbor, Antigua
It has officially been ten days since any of us have worn shoes at all! That, as well as showers that include backflips and getting in an arm workout every time you have to use the restroom, have become totally unquestioned norms in our short time aboard Argo.
As skipper for the day, I decided to wake up the crew with some easygoing Eagles songs, followed up with some Neill Young – we’ve had more jam-packed days in a row than we know what to do with, so I thought some pleasant tunes would make 7 am a little more bearable.
We powered through an epic make-your-own breakfast burrito bar and were quickly down to business. Clean up (a whole ordeal in itself) was immediately followed by a highly informative seamanship class taught by Elle. With the basics of boat types and sails tentatively down, we got to learning knots – a key component to any functioning sailboat. The weird names (luff? fish? leech!?!?) and complicated diagrams became VERY real immediately thereafter during a sail training. We threw it all together, identifying Argo’s own mainsail and jibs, 2-6ing (taking in) the lines, and tying them off with our knot skills. We are all soooo ready to hit the water running tomorrow and get Argo moving!
Our efforts were rewarded with bowls of mac and cheese. (Mom, the GF DF food is GREAT). With happy bellies, we jumped right into a marine biology lab – comparing dissolved oxygen levels at depths and viewing and identifying zooplankton under our microscopes. The lab exercises are just a small taste of the tools we have available for our larger, self-curated experiment projects for the semester.
The rest of the afternoon was all up to us – you could find Argonauts studying in the salon, prepping sails on deck, raising dinghies, or taking extended ocean showers in the world’s greatest bathtub.
During the squeeze, I asked the crew what the best piece of advice they had ever received was. I heard a lot of incredibly meaningful pieces tonight, but one sticks out in particular for this adventure.
Signing off, about to go watch the super bowl that someone battled international date rates to get streaming for everybody. Cheers!
PS, to everybody at home, I love you! 🙂
“When it rains, look for rainbows. And, when it’s dark, look for stars.” – Lewis’s really wise mom / Oscar Wilde.
Pictured:
1. Nick checking out some zooplankton
2. Trevor helping me sample the colorimeter
3. epic pre-dinner stoke
4. knots!
5. Una and Frankie with some more knots
6. Izzy, Sam, Elie, and Gillian also doing knots.