Location: Fam
For most of us, today started around 6 a.m. as we finished setting up our dive gear and loaded the dinghies in order to make it to our dive site for a dawn dive. Those opting to dive included Beck, Anabelle, Lexy, Addy, Reagan, Iain, Will, Sidney, Austin, Steph, Tomer and yours truly. Elanore and Kylie tagged along to snorkel above the reef while Anna sat surface in Nopadone. Notable mentions from the dive include a turtle who hung out and kept photobombing us, a shark, and an adorable baby ray that swam below us as we followed the edge of an overhang. About halfway through the dive, we ran into a raging current that resulted in us turning around, but that’s okay because it led us to a beautiful spot of coral that was beautifully lit by the sunrise as we watched the reef wake up. Post-dive, we rapidly cleaned our kits up and got the dinghies on deck before devouring breakfast burritos that had been chaffed up by the dynamic duo of Gabe and Kackie. Breakfast cleanup led right into passage prep as we fell into the routine of ratcheting dinghies, taking off sail covers, and securing all of the dive gear in order to pick up anchor and get moving. As we picked up anchor, there was a joyful energy as it was rumored that we were going to be able to put up all 6 of the sails today. We started with our classics: main staysail, forward staysail, and main. The main staysail kicked us off with the most efficient topping of the boom every, completely a result of the calling ay-Papi instead of the standard 2-6. As we were putting up our classics, there was a wonderful moment where we could all feel the engine turn off. When the engine turns off, it makes everyone appreciate the stillness as the boat is no longer vibrating, and you can suddenly talk in the cockpit without having to shout at someone 6ft away from you. The raising of our classics was quickly followed by the jib (this is only the 3rd time we have raised the jib, which makes it quite exciting). Then we put up the flying jib and the fish, which meant we had ALL SIX SAILS UP!!!!!! This was the first time we had seen the flying jib and fish up this semester, and everyone could be seen gazing up at the beauty of Argo under all her sails. For a brief moment, we were going 6 knots in 6 knots of wind, which is kind of crazy (this may have been due to the current, but we like to believe it was the sails). The sail raising was an all-hands-on-deck activity that ended up taking all of the morning. This delayed the marine biology fish ID quiz that had been scheduled for this morning after it had already been delayed for what seemed to be forever. While we had been raising all of the sails. Anabelle and Sidney were whipping it up in the galley producing a delicious lunch of lemon chicken. This revived everyone after the hot and sweaty sail handling we had experienced that morning. Sadly, while cleanup was happening, the mysterious rumble of the engine turned on as the wind had died down too much for us to be moving under sail power alone. As we were gathering below for our fish ID quiz, we were all devastated to hear that the deckie team of Beck, Lexy, and Austin, as well as some staff, had already taken down the fish and flying jib :(. Nevertheless, we quickly knocked out the ID quiz, and we were rewarded with some delicious sticks of baking chocolate as Anna led us in a phylum review for our upcoming marine biology exam. We had been told we would have a chill afternoon after class, and people began to pull out their computers to work on their leadership essays or pull out their snacks to chat in a rare calm moment on Argo. This free time was very short-lived as Steph soon came to tell us we were taking down the staysails and the main (the jib was taken down while we were in class). Now, this would be a very routine operation until we were told that the staysails were going to be a student-led drop. The staff would be there to be directed by the students but would only step in if something desperately needed their attention. As Sidney, Lainey, and I were the first on deck, Sidney took charge of the forward staysail while Lainey and I headed the mainstay. The forward staysail seemed to come down pretty easily from the small amount I saw. The main staysail definitely did not come down in the most efficient way, but based on the number of moving parts and it being our first student-led drop, I would say it went pretty well. As the main staysail team was finishing flaking, the rest of the crew dropped the main, which was a staff lead drop. With the sails down and us nearing anchor, we hopped into de-passage prepping. This was also student-led, as we had passage and de-passage prepped enough times to know how most of these things work. Some people started taking ratchets off and unloading dinghies while others pulled sail-covered back out of the laz. Lainey, Kylie, and I took all of the halyards back off of the sails. We then dropped anchor in Fam near a couple of small sailboats and a couple of gorgeous-looking islands. As sail covers finished going on, Nopadone was lowered into the water as Steph, Kelsey, and Anna went to do some recon for our upcoming dives and our scientific drawing workshop. As they went on their mission, the rest of us had an hour to ourselves. Some spent snorkeling to the beach (seeing another turtle), some spent chilling in the water, others spent below deck, and all finished with a lovely ocean shower. Dinner (brought to us again by Sidney and Anabelle) were bowls consisting of quinoa, beans, sweet potatoes, feta, and more, topped with a bomb dressing of lime juice, cilantro, garlic, and vegan mayo (don’t knock it ’til you try it). Tonight’s squeeze question was “What is the funniest moment with the person to your right” This brought quite a few laughs, including the way Sidney says jacket (geeee-yack-it), witnessing someone leave a butt print of diaper cream on the cabinets in the galley (victim to remain unnamed), dance parties in the galley, and Tomer skipping to a slide in Palau. Post-dinner activities included a wonderful pterodactyl impersonation from Beck that roared down the chart house as I began this blog and a wonderful navmaster course led by Gabe, where he forced me to momentarily abandon my blog writing in order to learn more about the differences between true magnetic and compass headings, how to chart a three bearing fix and finding a bearing when two objects on land are lined up with each other. Now, people are getting back to work on their leadership essays or heading off to bed to catch some shut-eye before an anchor watch and a jam-packed day tomorrow.