Location: Underway to the Marquesas
Greetings, friends, family, and faithful followers, on firm footing,
My day started with the 08-12 watch, the themes of which were oil. My job for this watch was oiling the dark wood in the galley and salon with teak wood on ripped cotton T-shirts with the other Uncs (a slang term for Uncle, which refers to an older person who isn’t up on the trends, or as cool and hip as the youngins. If you found this definition helpful, you are, I fear, also an Unc. Welcome to the club. Helena, Emma, Cason, and I earned this esteemed title from the 21-22 years of sagacity we have under our belts. Our morning watch wound down with a read-aloud by me from a Lonely Planet Tahiti & French Polynesia guidebook. We got lost in reveries of the sandalwood and vanilla-scented monoi oil awaiting us in Tahiti. Another visceral sensory description that helped us feel truly transported was that monoi oil’s olfactory antithesis also awaits us, Fafaru. a dish of fish fermented in rotting fish water for 10 days that lends the meat a silky texture, but also an odor described as roadkill wrapped in a sweaty sock. Aidan looks at Charlie and goes, “We’re trying that.”
Aidan’s mood was buoyed by making radio contact with a boat, Tahoma, that appeared on our radar and happened to be the buddy boat of one that his girlfriend was on in the Galapagos. I’d almost say, “What a small world,” if I hadn’t spent nearly two weeks crossing the world’s biggest ocean at 8 mph to know intimately that the world is, in fact, very, very, large. If anything, that makes the chance run in all the more special.
After lunch of penne alla vodka (my concession to even calling it this is truly magnanimous, as there was neither penne involved, nor vodka), we put into practice the Emergency First Responder skills that we most definitely fully absorbed and mastered from yesterday’s 2-hour training video, which we watched, totally rapt, in the claggy salon. With the caliber of acting one would expect of a 1990s informational video, there was simply no tearing our eyes away from those TVs. Despite this, I guess most of us would admit to today’s review and practical session being marginally helpful. We practiced CPR on dummies (this is where you play’ Stayin Alive’, or the more GenZ relevant ‘Pink Pony Club’, which is what Rachel had downloaded on her phone with the proper BPM. We also did some recovery position rolls, spinal injury stabilization, and AED application. Dinner was chili and cornbread a la 35 heel, you know, the usual. No need for a ladle to serve the chili into your bowl when the angle of the boat will pour it horizontally for you. Efficiency is top priority here, folks.
Finally, the announcement you might’ve predicted based on the 2nd song of the day.. we are halfway there!!!! I am thrilled about this, as now it’s basically just a 10-day countdown to “LAND HO”, and I don’t mean the type of countdown from 10 that those contemptible yoga sculpt instructors like to pull where the “3, 2, 1” turns into a “3, 2, aaanddd 7, 6, 5” It truly takes everything in me not to walk out of a class when that cunning move gets brought out. If we get to 1 day out and the ETA goes up to 10, I’m walking the plank.
Hi Mama, Grandma, Papa, Felciity, and anyone else tuning in to my first non-ghostwritten blog. Justin, happy early birthday!!! And a moment of appreciation for my mom, who knows her daughter so well, and anticipated that I’d forget to finish my task of booking my flight from SFO-DEN on the evening of April 27th, and took it upon herself to do it for me while I was on this passage. She was also wise to remember that on Wednesdays, Southwest has deals on last-minute flights, called “wanna get away Wednesday”. Love ya, Mama, thanks for booking that flight for me.
Also, if it’s Girl Scout season, please know that I think about Thin Mints on this boat more than a normal person should. I’ve heard they keep well for the next 1 month and 3 hours if stored in the freezer.
Sunset salutations to all,