Location: Underway to Fiji
Hello blog readers! I cannot believe that I am skipper again so soon–it feels like I wrote my last blog only a week ago. Sadly, this will be the last blog that I personally write for this semester, and what an incredible semester it has been so far. I know I’m not alone in not wanting it to end anytime soon.
Today was a rather interesting day to be skipper for. Why you may ask? Well, as today was Sunday, we had no normal scheduled class. Usually, class is replaced with another activity, such as our TED talks last week or watching Moana. This Sunday also had class replaced, but instead of class, we had the NavMaster exam: the chart and navigation exam that is a part of our Seamanship course. For those reading at home, there is nothing that strikes more fear into the hearts of Argonauts than the NavMaster exam. It is just you, a chart plotter, and a heck of a lot of Chesapeake Bay landmarks. We took the exam in 4 waves, starting at 8 am and finishing just before dinner at around 6 pm. Those who were not testing at any given interval used the time to catch up on sleep or get ahead on other assignments. The mood of the crew is most certainly less stressed now that we have it behind us, and now our attention is turning to enjoy the last week of passage we have together! It’s crazy that Fiji is only 1200 miles away.
While NavMaster was by far the main event from the day (hence this short blog post), here are a few other noteworthy tidbits. Elie made two delicious meals for us–calzones for lunch and cabbage pancakes for dinner. Watch Team 3 (my watch team) is having a crawling competition tomorrow morning to see who can crawl the length of the deck fastest in what is essentially the Kentucky Derby of the South Pacific. For squeeze, we talked about our families and which relatives had the coolest life experiences. And last but not least, our fearless leader Tim believes he saw a whale this morning (although witnesses do say he may not have been wearing his glasses at the moment).
See you tomorrow!
Position as of writing: 1200.96′ S, 16243.79′ W
P.S. Hi family! Miss you all so much and can’t wait to talk to you soon.
Pictured:
1. Dishy Pit cleanup following a long day
2. Our fabulous galley crew today
3. Riley, Louis, and I catching up on a bow watch