Hello family, friends, and all.
This is your first-time-skipper-for-the-day Charlie writing. Today, IT. GOT. REAL. Head chef Ben and sous chefs Philip and Kiley whipped up some very yummy baked beans, greens, eggs and bread. After cleanup, the open water students continued working on their PADI videos while everyone else did a bit of passage prep on deck. One example of this was the attaching of two lines on either side of Argo to be used as clip in points while under way. Next, we gathered in the cockpit for a proper discussion on personal floatation devices including the infamous and so called “Gumby Suits” We held a race to see who could don their suit fastest, Which Bodhi handily won.
Lunch was a quinoa salad so wonderful that it managed to avoid being overshadowed by the impending announcement of our watch teams. Before that though, was a walkthrough of the various stations we are to become very familiar with on our hourly ship checks. Once that was done, we gathered once again in the cockpit for the announcement that Captain Tomer stated would “alter the courses of our lives” or something to that effect. Without further adieu, here it is:
Watch team 1 lead by Gabe and Meg
Charlie, Ainsley, Kiley, Philip
Watch team 2 lead by Kackie and Ben
Travis, Ava, Amanda D, Ali
Watch team 3 lead by Allie and Will
Bodhi, Juliette, Hannah, Amanda M
These groups will be spending lots of time working together for the foreseeable future.
Now that we had our teams, we split off into completely different groups of three to be tought about pinrails, calling and responding, coiling, and a few other odds and ends. Then, it was time to get ready to leave for Lombok! My watch team practiced setting up and using Argo’s actual fire hose, and what our roles are in a terrifying man over board situation. After that It was finally and truly time to raise anchor. The 19 of us getting under way was ta sight to behold. all the teams worked amongst themselves doing their own very different but equally important jobs to pull off the operation that was getting argo out of a narrow exit while under very suboptimal wind conditions. Ainsley and I were stationed under the muddy anchor chains, laying them to rest in neat rows, while Philip and Kiley hosed them off from above. Argo is well on her way now, with Amanda M being the first student to take the helm. Oh yeah, and dinner was some delicious pasta.
rushing back to my watch,
Charlie
These groups will spend a lot of time working together in the days to come.