Location: Underway to Dominica
I awoke to a beautiful morning onboard Argo and poked my head out of the chart house to check on the watch team on deck. As the wind whistled through my Movember mustache, which was growing more impressive by the day, I was treated to the sight of watch team two taking over for watch team one. Since team two is led by the lovely Leah, whose birthday is today, the students on her watch had decided to throw a grand party during the 8 to 12 shift. As the watch team came pouring out of the main companionway, each person was dressed fancier than the last. Malcolm came out in more casual wear (complete with cutoff jeans), Holden came out sporting our ever-fashionable foulies, Katie stepped out wearing a smart plaid sports coat and leggings, Kelly followed her in a festive polka dotted sweater, Avery donned a beautiful blue polka-dotted dress (that went with the complementary colors of her yellow and black PFD), Alex wore an interesting fuchsia dress with strange sleeves, and finally, RJ and Eric exited the companionway in full suits. Even Leah put on a cute skirt over her foulies so she could keep warm and with the party theme! Leah also got to wear the birthday crown, a glittery, pink happy birthday hat/headband with fuzzies and pom-poms. Watch team two could only ever be considered the classiest of watches, especially once they got the party underway. Invitations were passed out the night before, and luckily I was able to procure one since I am Captain. Snacks galore were brought out to feast upon Oreos, pringles, and all kinds of chocolates. Then the juice boxes were brought out Oh! The fruit-flavored drinks! Alex was helming spectacularly in her dress, and many group photos were taken to commemorate the classiest of watches.
After group photos at the helm, Eric, RJ, Kelly, Katie, and Avery went to the bow to do a photo shoot. Eric’s dapper suit and RJ’s brilliant posing made them both great models, and we now have plenty of new photos to put in the catalog. In addition to Alex helming in fancy clothes, the rest of the watch team sheeted in all the sails in the finest wear. To top it off, music was provided to the cockpit by the super classy iPad in a metal bucket approach. This meant that Leah’s waterproof iPad, a roughly $1000 piece of equipment, was placed in a metal bucket (which normally used for bleaching dishes, is over two years old, and sports some pretty gnarly dents) that can’t be worth more than $2; it was a deck speaker done in true Argo fashion, and it worked brilliantly.
All in all, it was a fabulous birthday watch/party for Leah! Although team two had already celebrated, the rest of the boat partied with Leah at dinner! Happy Birthday was sung severely off-key and off-pitch. Lilly made a delicious oreo chocolate tart for Leah, which we all got to share; it was an especially daunting task for Lilly to undertake since the boat was rocking like crazy and things were flying left and right in the galley as our other chefs, Britt, RJ, and Aliki, tried to finish cooking. I was a bit sad that I did not receive any tart with frosting (made from the leftover oreo creme), but it was still delicious. Two days out at sea and many more to come, and I wouldn’t want to sail it with any other crew but the classiest crew on the ocean.
Sincerely, Saucy Sassy Salty Mustache Sam.
setdate:2012-11-16