Location: Underway to Richard's Bay
Hi families! Today has been an amazing day! I woke up this morning for the 4 am to 8 am watch, which may sound grueling, but it is actually my favorite time. You get to watch the sun come up over the ocean, and the sky is streaked with yellow and pink; it’s really beautiful. Today, we woke up to rough seas and dark clouds that blocked out Orion, which we can always see overhead. We all geared up in our full foulies, bib, and jacket and headed up on deck. The winds were chilling, and we lasted about 30 minutes before the rain started coming down. Sadly, Griffin was on coolant watch for two hours (our engine’s coolant temp was high, so we needed someone to ensure it stayed low), and he missed the entire squall, which he had been most enthusiastic about being a part of. As we exited the storm, the winds hit around 40 knots as we dropped the main staysail. As we were flaking the sail, Lucia, Ruby, and Ayden got their legs swept out from underneath them and went tumbling down onto the deck. Luckily, they were all completely fine, but the laughter made it difficult to finish the task at hand. By the time the next watch team came up for duty, we all felt pretty weathered and a bit like real sailors. Today, we had a quiz on oceanography, and we spent time preparing for our marine bio exam tomorrow. During class, we had around three spillages, two of them involving sugar and sprinkles. The boat has been extremely rocky today, so we’ve spent a lot of time tumbling into one another. I love you all! Also, Lucia says shoutout to her family 🙂