Location: 09,56.21 S 019,50.34 W
To our surprise and pleasure, last night was filled with a sky full of twinkling stars and a bright half-moon. Watch team one went to bed after dinner, and we relished in our brief, but necessary, naps before our reverie was broken, and we took the deck at midnight once more. We were delighted by the absence of squalls, the constant hum of the engine, and lively conversations as we continued on our quest to Brazil. After a pleasant evening amongst the stars and the flying fish, watch team one found themselves in the comfort of their bunks once more, getting lulled to sleep by the sea.
As I sit and reflect on how time is progressing, and how things outside of our bubble are still churning along, I understand a few things about the group as a whole. Not many of us realize, and won’t until some time has passed, how important these weeks out here on the sea are to us, with minimal things to worry about. We get in a routine, we feel more like we are at our second home, start to get annoyed by people, and we seem to forget what brought us out here in the first place. We have taken our own futures by the horn and decided to do something not many people can say they have done these days, especially at such young ages, cross an ocean on a 112-foot boat with 28 other people. Those people that are just that in the beginning, but become so much more than that. They become our friends, our family, our everything (at least for the 90 days we share together), and the only people that will truly understand the hardships, the jokes, and the adventure that we shared. At some point along the way we realize we are all here together, we have everything we need, and we are growing as leaders, as sailors, as scientists, but more importantly as people. It is only day 32, but we have sailed just over 3060 nautical miles, over halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, and are only 840 nautical miles from Fernando de Noronha. We want the outside world to know we are thinking about you guys, but we also want you to know we are content out here bobbing with the waves and our newly found friends, enjoying life to the fullest in this brief moment in time when all we have to worry about is when our next watch is.
I hope everything is going well at home – I am thinking of you, dad! Love you all.
Smash T.