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Location: Rarotonga, Cook Islands

As the sun rose on a quiet Rarotonga morning, an unexpected force stirred the peace. We were swiftly attacked by a legion of rust and dirt, which covered our beloved vessel, Argo, in… rust and dirt. Argo was inarguably clean the entire time we were under passage. It is widely known that keeping a ship clean is an extremely easy task, so all the rust and dirt we woke up to was simply not our fault and definitely part of the ambush. As a result, we spent the first half of the day furiously fighting our brand new enemies, scrubbing the decks, and scraping the rust off the boat. It was a long and arduous process, but ultimately we reigned victoriously.

To celebrate our successful counter-attack, we decided to embark on an expedition on the exciting island of Rarotonga, allowing us to set foot on land for the first time since Bora Bora. We explored the wide breadth of locations on this naturally beautiful island, from the burger shops to the pizza shops to the sandwich shops. We saw many amazing sights that we strongly missed during our passage, like burgers, pizza, and sandwiches. We also saw a large number of stray dogs, but fear not, these dogs are unlike dogs in any other part of the world, as they are all very well fed and incredibly happy and friendly. So they got petted and fed. It was a good day.

After our exploration and feasts, we returned to our mothership for one more meal. We ate some delicious chicken sandwiches with homemade bread rolls. After dinner, the entire boat had a very nice (but very long) group discussion regarding ethical dilemmas. We talked about many different topics, from exploring what we know regarding historical tragedies to personal ethical decisions we have made to influence those we love. Now, we will watch Moana.

If my pretentiousness and sarcasm do not translate well over text, here is the short version: We cleaned the boat for most of the day, and we took a break with a short visit to shore. We then had dinner and had a nice conversation regarding ethics for the squeeze. When we are incredibly busy with SCUBA diving in beautiful reefs and sailing between the most remote island nations in the world, we occasionally need to take a step back to organize and restructure. But that does not make the experience less worthwhile. Sometimes life is idle, but ultimately it is how you choose to see it that makes the largest difference.

– Raul

Pictured: Danny, Panos, Sam, Ryan, and Raul enjoying some delicious burgers; happy Rarotonga dog; everyone excited to watch Moana.