Location: 29, 26, 44 S. 10, 26, 06 E.
As the midnight to 4 am watch team took the helm last night, the Argo and her crew seemed to be settling into the rhythm of our long sea passage. The sea grew a bit rougher in the early morning than it had been yesterday, but apart from one close brush with crash gibing (when the stern goes through the wind, causing the boom to snap from one side of the boat to the other), dawn arrived without incident.
Early in the morning, we saw an albatross for the second time so far this trip. We would have a third sighting–presumably of the same bird–in the late afternoon, but luckily, all our necks are albatross-free. A while later, our bow watch caught sight of a white object on the horizon. It grew larger as the minutes wore on until we could distinguish the form of a container ship heading in the opposite direction. On the closest approach, we were about two and a half miles away, which is the closest we’ve been to other humans in four days.
Morning gave way to afternoon, and after enjoying Tim’s lentil curry, we headed belowdecks for our third set of classes this transit. Jay gave his lecture for a Leadership class, and then Mimi earned the gratitude of the entire class by showing a nature documentary as the day’s Marine Bio class. A short while later, we had our dinner of teriyaki beef and set about our evening cleanup. The 8-12 watch saw the sunset over the sea, and by the day’s end, the Argo had traveled just under 200 nautical miles. We are now around a third of the way through our passage to St. Helena. The day’s events have now concluded, and, with the exception of those on watch, the crew can now go to bed as the Argo sails ever onward into the ocean.