Location: San Blas
This is the name of one of my grandfathers, who turned eighty today! I am overjoyed to have him in my life as well as to be able to talk to him throughout our journey to Tahiti, as I know he loves hearing about all of our travels. Every Monday night for the past coons age, he and my grandmother Bonnie have attended the same restaurant/bar, Burton’s, for manhattans with their two best friends. He is my biggest inspiration, and I can’t wait to hear about his sailing trip, “Papapalooza,” with my father, three uncles, and brother this April. As for today on Argo, we woke up to yet another day in paradise. As we were finishing up breakfast cleanup, we got the pleasant surprise of being told by immigration that we all must go ashore to have our passports checked. We were ecstatic!
I quickly split the crew into groups to be shuttled to an island that consisted of a small runway, a volleyball court, two hammocks, immigration services, and a military base, of course. Afterward, we came back to the boat to start getting Argo ready for her next date with the ocean. While we were preparing to wash the deck, Mac bought ten coconuts to share from a local man who pulled along our starboard side in his dugout canoe. For lunch, we had some amazing baguette sandwiches prepared by Alexandra, which reminded me of the time we spent in Les Saintes. I spent a good amount of time cleaning and wiping down different bilges below the deck while others either cleaned the saloon, prepared food, or washed the deck. BA is an all-hands-on-deck activity, to say the least. We finished up the day by having some jump in showers and a quick oceanography class before getting into dinner. It is an odd feeling thinking about how every student on this boat decided to embark on this journey for a multitude of different reasons, and less than a month ago, we had no idea what to expect getting onto a boat full of people we’d never met before. Yet now we are a family of sorts, dysfunctional like most, yet determined to achieve a common goal. Can’t forget that some of the locals will put a mast, boom, and small sail on their canoe and sail around the bay, which I think is sick!