Location: East London, South Africa
I cant believe this was my last day being skipper on the job wheel and my last time writing the blog on this voyage! Its so weird to think about going home to no job wheel, no salty pit, no trash mastering some jobs will definitely be missed more than others though.
Today started with sleeping in until 8 am (2 nights in a row!!) and having Thanksgiving leftovers for breakfast, which, in my opinion, is actually the best part of the whole holiday. I had a smorgasbord of pecan pie, lemon cake (shoutout Keith and Maia), mud pie (a Maia, Fin, and Zeke concoction), pumpkin pie (thank you, Scarlette!), and some Greek yogurt and a KitKat coffee to balance it all out. Scrumptious!
After cleanup, we jumped into oceanography class, where we had a unit quiz. Once that was over, we had a bonus leadership class! We discussed our upcoming student-led passage from Knysna to Cape Town in a few days. Emma had us discuss our concerns, things that we are excited about, and steps we can take to help it go as smoothly and enjoyably as possible. It was quite productive, and I think we all have some great ideas.
Once leadership was over, we started passage prep as we leave tonight for Knysna. I was super stoked to be in charge of the official clipboard and passage prep checklist! I walked around the boat with Riley and Fin, our chief mate elect. Zoe, Scarlette, and Jewel prepared dinner (burrito bowls, our first non-Thanksgiving meal), and the rest of us did passage prep jobs. And then it was time to leave! We pulled off the dock and headed out of the river. The hilly coastline rolled into the distance behind us, with huge sand dunes sheltering pristine beaches to the west, lush green fields sprawling to the east, and the city nestled in between. I was asleep when we came into port, so it was nice to see it on the way out. We wasted no time raising the staysails and getting underway. Vera, our skipper elect, did a beautiful job helming!
We had a great dinner as the sun was peak golden hour, saw a tiny rainbow cloud, and did squeeze. My question was if the person to your right were a texture, what would they be? Some notable answers included Rai Ching saying that Kyler would be sandwich texture, Emma saying Fin would be snowball texture (so true), and Zeke saying Maia would be hairy slime texture (!?!). All in all, a great day and a wonderful start to our second-to-last passage!
Love,
Hannah