Location: Underway to Palau
Hello, and welcome to a Seamester classic; Stephanie gets sentimental at the end of a long passage round 164. Somehow I almost always find myself as skipper at the end of so many of the long passages I have done over the years. I swear I don’t plan it this way. even back in the days when I didn’t make the job wheels, I still found myself in this situation way more often than not. This one also feels just a bit more sentimental, if you can even imagine that, than the rest of them, as it’s my last long passage with Seamester. I bet you’re now remembering my first blog post of the semester, where I talked about it being my last semester. Yes, I am indeed milking it and basically have just spent the last 35 days (and will spend the next 45) in a constant state of sentimental, trying to soak in every moment of this last trip and appreciate all the things that will cease to be very soon for me. I still remember my very first passage at Seamester. It was also on board Argo back in 2021. We were just sailing from Antigua to St Vincent, but from what I remember, it was ROUGH. Would I still think it was rough now, probably not, but back then it was something else. I showered that first night of passage, as one does, and I vividly recall getting thrown around the head and thinking Jesus Christ if I cant even shower how the heck am I going to do this as my job for the next year, I might have to quit. How silly little baby Stephanie was. That program ended in a 34 day passage from Galapagos to Fiji, Seamester’s longest one on program, and me falling in love with passage life. The consistency of the day, the weird conversations that bond people so quickly in a delirious half-awake state at 3 am, the 360 ocean sunsets and sunrises, and how all you have are the boat and the people around you and nothing else seems to matter for a bit. Passage became one of my favorite things, and the thought of this being the last big one is pretty crazy to me. But alas, all good things must come to an end, and today was a pretty good day to end it. Watch team 3 was awoken for our 8 am-12 pm watch shift. Kelsey and I silently wobbled around the chart house, getting ourselves ready and only communicating in waves as we weren’t fully hatched yet. We headed up on deck to find the rest of our beans, Casey, William, Mathilda, Addy, and Iain, also unhatched but moving toward the cockpit. We gave ourselves about 30 minutes to get coffee and breakfast and allow our brains to fully turn on, and then it was time for work watch. We pumped out the engine room bilge, organized the library, cleaned the spice cabinet, and washed the rags. Then, around 11, I got the best news from Tomer all day. He said, “Should we put the staysails up?” and I freaked out. To put it into context, we have been motoring for the last week or so because we have had approximately 3 knots of wind, aka not anywhere close to enough to move Argo in the right direction, until now. Our watch team, with Maverick as a guest star, headed up towards mid-ships. We got the main staysail boom topped and sent her up super speedily. Next up was the forward staysail. I told the students that they had this one on their own and I was only there for hauling lines as directed and they absolutely nailed it. One of my favorite things is this point of the program where it all starts clicking with them, and you can start handing over leading things to them rather than having the staff do it. With the staysails up, it was time for lunch. Lexy, Sidney, and Austin whipped up a delicious Mediterranean pasta salad that was downed quickly. Everyone went off on their cleanup jobs and then down to the saloon for Oceanography. Today marked the start of the student’s presentations on their chosen literature review topic. These presentations will set us up for the second half of the class coming up. It was really nice to hear about what they had been researching and see them present on their own for the first time this semester. After class, we had a little dive paperwork party where lots of autographs were needed and handed out, and everyone got to log all their dives from Fiji leading up to our imminent dive days in Palau. Then, everyone had some free time where logbooks were finished, laundry was done, and cakes were made. We headed up on deck for our second meal of rice and beans, carrots, and, most importantly, cake. Not just any cake, though. Chocolate cake, which was massive, with coconut buttercream frosting drizzled with homemade caramel. What? That’s insane. This group has been particularly awesome at the dessert game this passage, which was been bad for the sweet tooth but good for morale. My squeeze question was, what are you going to miss the most about the passage? I offered up anyone who could make me cry points at winning. What does that mean? I have no idea, but they were into it. Answers ranged from the sleepy watch handovers, where you get to interact with other people aside from your watch team in the middle of the night and getting to do this with our 40A students, to the sunsets and sunrises and the extra effort that people on different watch teams would make to still be able to hang out with everyone when they weren’t on watch. My answer was that I would miss Casey 2 6ing on the main staysail sheet, the outrageous things that come out of Wills’s mouth in the middle of the night, Iain playing along with the jokes and bits that we have, Mathilda’s games she makes up, and how loud Addy gets when she gets excited. I’ll miss waking up in the chart house with Kelsey and our morning routine of her using the head first and me laying in bed for just 5 more minutes and us doing the aforementioned wobbling around the chart house waving to each other at all hours of the night with our eyes open but brains off. I am going to miss the 360 view of the ocean all the time, but mostly during sunrise and sunset. One of my favorite things about the passage is how much individuals and a group can change over the span of a seemingly small amount of time. In just 3 weeks, we have gone from a group of people who didn’t know each other super well and were worried we wouldn’t be on watch with people we got along with to a group of people who had shared stories that they had never shared with anyone else and laughed until we cried at squeeze when Will lost odds for the 30th time in a row. Passage will always be one of my favorite parts about this job, and I still have a few more little jumps left, but there will always be something special about my last long passage, back on the boat where it all began three and a half years ago. Crazy that will be in Palau tomorrow, as long as everything goes to plan and the wind and current keep doing what they’re doing. Somehow, three weeks seems like forever, but also no time at all. Also, if you’re wondering if I cried at a squeeze, the answer is almost. Who almost got me? Joshua talked about how he wasn’t so sure about the watch at first, and then it turned into something he looked forward to every day, getting to hang out and chat with his watch team every night or when Beck answered and sounded like he was about to cry himself. But don’t worry, there’s still time. Twenty-two days from now, please expect even more sentimental nonsense. I literally cannot help myself.