Location: Bahia de Pollenca, Mallorca, Spain
The day was an eventful one, starting at midnight for watch team 3 with Elis, Max, Brendan, Grace N., Jesse, Amy, Eduardo, Mich, Lukas, and I. It started with lightning flashing in the distance every so often. The wind picked up enough to allow us to ease the sails out to a broad reach, shut down the engine, and cruise along through the dark water of the Balearic Sea. Eventually our blissful sail turned cold, rainy, and a bit more wind than we would like. So we put our seamanship skills to the test and doused the jib, which is our smaller head sail. After she was tucked up on the bow sprit, we moved our crew to the main staysail, where we brought the sail into a close haul. From there, it was time to get the double reefed main fully down and secured to the boom. After our spirits were dampened with a bit of rain, they rose again when we were able to ease the main staysail back out to sail through the bioluminescence once more. Although the lightning was close and the thunder loud, watch team 3, with the company of Tom and Mac, stayed as strong as our running backstays.
After the events of the 12-4, watch team 3 get some much-needed sleep. As watches went on, watch team 2 brought us into Bahia de Pollenca in northeast Mallorca. As they were preparing to drop our remaining sails (the staysail), they spotted a floating dinghy. Ben and Luke responded by hopping into our trusty dinghy Angkarn to retrieve the small Highfield drifting out to sea. They did quick work on the Smol guy, and we got her back on board as a prize. The morning rolled into getting the boat to bed, which meant taking off the halyards, putting sail covers on, and getting the dive gear out of the Laz. Once we all broke a sweat, lunch was ready. Dan, Liam, and Mac prepared some mac and cheese with a side bowl of ground beef. After lunch, Claire took Elis, Grace C., and James for a dive, while Ben took Talia, Grace N., Amy, Jesse, and Lukas for a dive. Once the underwater world was thoroughly explored by those two groups, I took Watson, Eduardo, Chloe, Brendan, Dan, and Eliza for a dive filled with sea grass and tiny fish. Ben practiced rescue techniques with Audrey and Max. While all this dive training was happening, the group working on their advanced certifications got to do a little exploration of the town. From Luke’s account, he was able to find a rugby ball and a beach where he, Boston, Ruby, Liam, Lillian, and Theo could spend the afternoon.
After all the diving and exploring, we came together for an orange chicken dinner and squeeze. Tonight I used a classic question of what is your favorite flavor of ice cream, but said in a bat man voice. My favorite response is always Tom huskily saying “goody goody gumdrop” (A new Zealand classic, but not as good as Boysenberry). Ben gave us his version of his favorite Sunday to end. After clean up we moved the boat forward into some shallower water. All in all, it was a great day filled with wind, sea, and laughs. Until next time.