Location: Dominica
What is up, my dudes? Today, Steph gave us the beautiful gift of letting everyone sleep in until 8. Most people took full advantage of that and slept in, but my body decided to wake up at 6:30 to start my day. First, I did a little Navmaster studying because today was the day half of us took the big exam. After a bit of studying, I hit a little workout up on deck, and then it was time to do my first obligation of the day as skipper: wake everyone up. This was my first time as a skipper that wasn’t on passage, so that meant it was the first time I got to do full boat wake-ups, and I took full advantage of that. Today, the boat got woken up to the 7-minute-long Reputation stadium tour version of I Did Something Bad by Taylor Swift… if you don’t know what I’m talking about, go look it up, and your life will be changed forever. After everyone started to crawl out of their cabins, I told Frida that I was going to finally do a back flip of the bow sprit today, but I needed her to hype me up and that she did. She told me to stop overthinking it and just go for it, so I did, and I did it! It was sick I was so proud of myself for just going for it, and now I can’t stop doing back flips haha.
Today, for breakfast, Will made everyone these cute little eggs in bell pepper things. I don’t know how else to describe them, but they were awesome! After breakfast, it was time for dingy school! Everyone got a chance to go out on the dingy with Jake, rip around the bay, and practice maneuvering the dingy. It was really fun. We did a fake man overboard drill and practiced driving up to Vela. While other people were doing dingy school, the rest of us got to just chill out which was nice after our crazy days yesterday. I spent the entirety of my free time to do back flips off the bowsprit while listening to Taylor Swift… it was epic.
For lunch, Will made us all a yummy goat/feta cheese salad with all the fixings. It’s so nice to be in a place now where we can get fresh produce so frequently and not just have to eat canned stuff. After lunch, Meg gave us a presentation on sperm whales since there are many in the area. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any, but it was still really cool and interesting to learn about them. We got to see a really cool video that the spring 2022 captain of Vela filmed while on one of their passages crossing the Atlantic of a sperm whale giving birth. Apparently, if you can catch an event like this on film, it can make you a ton of money, so I bet that was pretty sick for that guy, haha! Next up was the long-awaited Navmaster exam DUN DUN DUNNNN. Not gonna lie. That was rough. I’m very glad to have it done, though. For those who don’t know, the exam was all about plotting things like estimated positions, courses to steer, dead reckonings, and running fixes on a chart. While half of us were taking the test, the rest were up on deck helping us make our way north to Portsmouth!
Once we got here, I immediately helped get the ladder in so we could swim cause it’s hot as balls here. Betcha can’t guess what I did… mooooore backflips. I swam around a little with Allie and Conor and then hit a deck shower with Frida before dinner. Deck showers are so freakin fun. When else can I shampoo into a back flip?!
For dinner, Will made us a yummy chicken, rice, and veggie bowl type situation, which is personally one of my favorite dinners, so I loved it. Will did a wonderful job getting all the nutrients in our bodies today, so much so that Freddie made it his appreciation. Today, for squeeze, I was so unprepared with my question that I worked with Conor and Laszlo just minutes before to come up with something, and we landed on “If the person to the right of you was a bug, what kind of bug would they be and why?” The question stemmed from the common question we joke about sometimes: “Would you still love me if I was a worm?” lol. Everyone had all kinds of funny answers, but one of my favorites was Allie deciding that Kaden would be one of those really small ants that are carrying something massive on its back, and you can tell it’s so proud of itself. Another good one was Nate referring to Benno as one of those pre-historic bugs thats like 2 meters long.
And that takes us here, me writing up this little bloggy blog. After this, we are all going to give our little speeches as to why we want the roles that we want for our student-led passage to Saba. Every single one of us ran for a position which, according to the staff, literally never happens, so go us. For those back home, the student-led passage is a passage entirely run by the students. The staff has to sit back and let us make all the decisions, including when we should sail vs motor, when to turn the generator or the water maker on, and plot the course that we want to go. The positions are skipper, chief mate, engineer, navigator, and the biggest one of all… the chief engineer (the dude that puts up and takes down the flag every day).
That’s all for today, folks! I can’t believe we have less than two weeks left. The past three months have absolutely flown by. I feel so grateful for this whole experience and everything I’ve learned from it. Being here has been a life-changing experience, and I’m so excited to move forward with this new frame of mind and outlook on life. I think the Emma that started this trip would be really proud of the Emma that came out on the other end.
Mom, Dad, Will, MY PUPPY… I LOVE YAAA. I miss you all, and sorry for the extreme lack of wifi I’ve had, haha.
Signing off for my final time as skipper, Eems