Location: Underway Azores to Gibraltar
After another day of passage, we have just entered the Gibraltar Straights.
Beginning with yesterday evening’s watches that continued the ongoing Argo prank war fitting in all we can before passage comes to a close. Watch Team 2 conducted their elaborate plan to disrupt their wake-ups from watch Team 1. Will made his way below deck to wake up watch team 2 for their 1200-0400 watch and was greeted by a haunted house of jump scares. Leo, Santana, Maya, Cate, and Claire were one step ahead of him and had Will on the floor from fear. Once the prank had played out, one key member was still missing. Everyone was wondering, ‘Where is Drew?’ and there he came emerging out of the forward bilge to prank not only Will but his own watch team as well. This was then followed by watch team 2 hiding in bilges in an attempt to scare watch team 3; this was met with little to no reaction.
Waking up this morning to coffee and hot chocolates presented very suspiciously by watch team 3 kicked off our 0800-1200 watch that involved lots of sing-alongs, sail handling, political discussions, and increasing boat traffic. After spotting the mountains of Morocco for the first time, we ended watch to Santana’s homemade pizza and dancing along to Africa by TOTO.
Lunch was followed by an awesome presentation introducing us all to Gibraltar and its history. After this, we decided to test our luck and try to sail through the straights of Gibraltar. We sheeted out the sails and turned the engine off to cruise along at a leisurely 4 knots. Once we were sailing, PSCT crew (Maya, Drew, Sammy, Charles, Lilly, Will, and Myself) moved into class with Calum in the cockpit, learning all about tide tables and calculations while being visited by a Moroccan fishing vessel that came alongside us – this felt super strange as we are still adjusting to no longer being in the open ocean.
As we continued to near the straights, the wind dropped, and it was time to strike the jib, which Will and Leo took on just the two of them as a dare from Gabe. Soon after, the main sail was center lined, and the engine was started back up. Dinner followed with a special Slaire (Santana and Claire) pasta sauce and a squeeze of questions about the best way to die.
I’ve just returned from a little break taken to appreciate the clear sky, the almost-full moon rising, and despite the lack of a green flash, a beautiful sunset.
Thanks for tuning in. See you all in Gibraltar!