Location: Underway to Borneo
After a midnight squall and watch in foul weather gear, waking up to hot biscuits added the spark back into Argo’s crew this morning. We spent the morning sailing surrounded by sheets of rain, but the sun prevailed (though we appreciated the nice cool breeze coming our way on an otherwise very hot day). After an amazing lunch of grilled cheeses on freshly baked bread, we went below to take our second midterm of the week – Marine Biology. It was a challenging test, but I have great faith in the students of Argo. It’s a lot easier to remember the features of mollusks and arthropods when we have been seeing plenty of them on our previous dives than it would be to remember in a normal classroom. It’s pretty amazing that we can see, touch, and experience almost all of what we have been learning about on this trip. Learning about dolphins while being surrounded by leaping, twisting, and twirling pairs of them is an unbeatable opportunity. After Marine Biology, we had Student Leadership and Development, where we delved further into our study of our personalities with cards that sorted us into categories of wind, water, fire, and earth based on the traits our classmates see in us. Everyone who knows me from back home probably won’t be surprised that I got mostly fire cards! It was cool to see how well we have gotten to know each other over these past weeks and how attuned we are to each other’s character traits. The afternoon carried on with studying, napping, showers, and of course, Laurie’s abs workout, to be concluded by a delicious dinner that was capped off with bread pudding for dessert. We are all awaiting a beautiful sunset and another star-filled night of watches as we sail ever closer to our destination.