Location: Barcelona
August 6th has arrived, and the day to finally enter the center of Barcelona has come. As Team 3 came up for watch, we were greeted with a blanket of stars and a nice cool breeze. As the watch went along, something in Vela’s engine decided she needed a break and went to sleep. While this normally would have scared all of the staff and crew, we basked in what we might say was the first true silence we have gotten since June 15th. With a sea of glass and Max’s calm and delicate guitar skills, it was quite the magical moment for all of Team 3. While we were enjoying our silence, Tom and Calum worked hard and woke Vela back up. We continued to head to our destination with nothing but excitement. Once four am hit, Team 1 came to relieve us and give us our sleep. While on Team 1’s watch, the wind died down, and if it were not for Gigi, Zoe, Natalie, and Kayla, it would have stayed that way. Their tantalizing chant to the wind gods around the bobaloo brought the wind back to us. Then Team 2’s watch came, and Calum and his team wanted to get a head start on BA by swabbing the deck. Around this time, we were within viewing distance of Barcelona and as the crew was setting up for docking Max, Tia, and Duncan were hard at work in the kitchen to prepare quite the meal. After lunch ended, we were able to finish docking prep and were cleared to enter the port. We entered the dock at 3, and we saw an awe-inducing amount of super yachts that made many of the buildings pale in comparison to their size. We even saw the famous and quite colorful racing boat known as Scorpios. Once we were docked, we quickly finished BA and then were greeted with wonderful facilities with a rooftop view of one of the most beautiful cities in all of Europe. We then had a delicious meal thanks to our chefs and a class in Excel to help us with our group research project. As that was the end of our day, some of the crew went up on the roof to spend time talking with their families and taking in the historic city from afar. We would all like to thank our families for giving us this chance to experience this amazing program. Thank you – Vela 2022